Stadium Stories | Colorado Avalanche

Mama, I’m makin’ milestones! I can now boast having been to a “handful” of NHL rinks as my recent visit to the Colorado Avalanche’s Pepsi Center brings my total up to five!

Though the Avs may not be a team with the, uh… best standings recently… good things can still come from being last in the league! Namely, $21 ticket prices! And because I saved so much on my ticket, I was able to splurge and park in the rink lot and buy concessions without feeling guilty! I see a great marketing opportunity here, NHL.

Cheers of “Let’s Go Blues!” rivaled those for the home team in volume, but the loyal Avalanche fans showed their steady support for their team even in a slump. Besides the fan force, I know they have at least one thing going for them, now that they have Matt Nieto, who entered the NHL as a rookie Shark.

A common pattern I’ve noticed in NHL games is honoring a Military Hero of the Game, but oddly enough I have never witnessed that at The Tank, much to my disappointment. The Avs also have fans tweet in using #avsthreestars so the crowd gets a say in the traditional Three Stars presented at the end of the game.

As for the game itself, Colorado did a great job of holding their own! They lost to the St. Louis Blues 4-2 but that fourth goal was an empty netter so we’ll call it 3ish-2. It was exciting to watch two teams that I don’t see very often live, and hear the chants of “Shame! Shame! Shame!” when there was a penalty.

But my favorite part of the whole Avalanche experience was during the National Anthem. While there was the regular hoop and holler during the closing verses, the Colorado crowd all keyed in and recited “that our flag was still there”. The emphasis on such a line took me back for a second and made me proud to be part of the hockey community.

It’s pretty ironic that I saw the Colorado Avalanche play after seeing the New Jersey Devils in January– a team that originated in Colorado until they moved in 1982! The Hockey Gods must have been rewarding me after all the research I did for my last post.