Strike One: The Colorado Avalanche have that Stanley Cup vibe going. For the first time in two decades.
The last time the Avs – who’ve had some good years mixed in with some bleak times since their last championship – won the President’s Trophy (and home ice throughout the post season) was way back during that Cup winning season in 2001. That’s also the last time they had an elite goaltender between the pipes. That dude, Patrick Roy, is in the hockey Hall of Fame.
Right now, it would be a lot premature to put Philipp Grubauer – the main man in net for these Avs – in the same sentence with Patrick the Great. But there’s no doubt that Grubauer has given Colorado the kind of goalkeeping that can make the difference between being eliminated early and sipping out of the Cup at the end of a play-offs. After sweeping St. Louis in the first round, the Avs are headed for a likely collision with Las Vegas in the next round, with the winner emerging as the clear favorite to capture the Cup.
At 29-years-old, Grubauer doesn’t have the flare or credentials of Roy, but he’s building an impressive resume of his own. This season he tied for the NHL lead in shut-outs with seven; was second in wins with 30, sixth in the league in save percentage at .922 (among guys with at least 30 starts) and posted an excellent 1.95 goals against average. Sweeping St. Louis means Grubauer has won his last eight play-off starts, and against the Blues had a sterling 0.94 save percentage, stopping 103 of 110 shots in the four games.
So is Grubauer, as some have suggested, “quietly great” between the pipes?
Colorado has had capable netminders, along with some dynamic offensive performers during the past two decades, but often times lacked sufficient talent on defense. That was before Samuel Girard and Cale Makar put on the Avs sweater. Along with Ryan Graves and Patrik Nemeth (even while missing Erik Johnson), this Colorado blue line is the best they’ve had since the Roy years. So how much of the defensive success is due to having talented, active, shot-blocking defenders, and how much is due to the stellar play of Grubauer?
It’s probably a combination of both, to be fair. Grubauer has made some sensational saves this post season, but he hasn’t had to steal a game for this team. No one has used the term “standing on his head” to describe his play.” Quietly stellar” might be the right term. His defenseman have been equally stellar, which is a great combination and gives this team a legit chance to win another Cup. Comparisons to Roy will have to wait until after a few parades.
Strike Two: Imagine if after losing Super Bowl XXIV, John Elway had demanded to be traded away from a winning Denver Broncos team to the losing New York Jets (who just finished a 4-12 season) simply because he selfishly believed the Denver market wasn’t big enough for him and his new gold-digger wife? How would Broncos fans have reacted the next time Elway came to town as a visitor? Not very kindly, you’d imagine.
This is a hypothetical of course…unless you substitute Carmelo Anthony for Elway and replace the NFL teams with NBA squads. Then it turns into actual, real history.
But now the national media wants Denver Nuggets fans to forgive and forget.
Sorry. No.
Carmelo did Denver wrong. He broke up a winning Nuggets team so he could try to sell more shoes and his wife could become a wannabe reality TV star. For that, he should forever be booed every time he steps on the floor at Ball Arena, Moby Gym, the Colorado Events Center, the FirstBank Center, the Budweiser Event Center or anywhere else in the region that has a basketball court.
Other sports stars – including guys like Ryan O’Reilly, Troy Tulowitzki, Matt Duchene and recently Nolan Arenado have each asked/demanded to have a moving van remove them from town, but not because our city/region wasn’t good enough for them. The former Avs had “business differences” with the organization (and they aren’t the most popular guys when they come back to town, either) while the former Colorado Rockies wanted out because the team wasn’t putting a competitive product on the field and they wanted to play for a winner. These things regularly happen in every sport/market in America.
As observers, we can understand those players’ perspective, even if we don’t agree with it. Plenty of players want to be traded away from losing teams to get the chance to play for a winner. That you can understand and even respect. Avs fans fondly remember the saga of Hall of Famer Ray Bourque, right? Left a big east coast market for a chance to play for a winner right here in our dusty old cow town – the same place/arena that wasn’t good enough for Anthony.
So it’s impossible for local fans to look at Carmelo in any sort of favorable light, given the fact that he demanded to be traded from a winning/play-off team to a loser for purely selfish reasons…and Nuggets Nation knows it.
So ignore the national media. Keep booing Anthony if you feel like it. He earned it.
On the other hand, fans should give Arenado a standing ovation – a long one – when he returns to Coors Field in July. He earned that too. He left it all on the field for the Rockies during good times and bad. He wanted a chance to play for a winner. He didn’t want to leave so his wife could be a TV star.
Strike Three: Friday night, May 28th is Opening Night in Boulder.
The place that saw the local University drop baseball in 1980 is also the place where some significant collegiate baseball history has been made in the past. Hopefully there’s more of that to come.
Between 1964 and 1980, Scott Carpenter Park was home to the Boulder Collegians during the summer. Topflight college players from all over the country would come to Colorado to spend their summer playing for the Collegians.
The late Bauldie Moschetti was the owner/operator/coach of most of those teams, including four that won the National Baseball Congress National Championship and nine more that finished fourth or higher. The list of players that have worn the Collegians uniform is a who’s-who of former MLB standouts. The top of the list includes Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, World Series winners Joe Maddon, Terry Francona, Burt Hooten, Rich Dauer, Bob Welch and Rookie of the Year Bob Horner, who played in Boulder in 1976 and won the NL RoY award in 1978. The Collegians alumni list includes more than 100 former pros.
After a successful 1980 season with San Diego State coach Jim Dietz at the helm (and the late Colorado Sports Hall of Famer Bus Campbell handling the pitchers) that included a third place finish at the NBC tourney in Wichita, the Collegians folded operations. Ironically, it was the same season CU dropped the program. That meant that college baseball was truly long gone in Boulder.
It stayed that way until 2013, when local baseball fanatic and businessman Matt Jensen brought the Collegians back. Slowly but surely the franchise has been regaining ground, and this season the Collegians look to recapture their status as a powerhouse program on the national stage. The schedule includes a road trip to Hays, Kansas to play the Larks, a team that’s a regular in the NBC tournament, and another to Fairbanks, Alaska to play the historic Goldpanners franchise in July. The NBC tourney in Wichita is a possibility, too.
But first, the Opening Nigh ceremonies that will include a ceremonial first pitch from a representative of the Boulder Police Department as the franchise honors officer Eric Talley and those killed in the tragic events of March 22nd. The Collegians hats will feature Officer Talley’s badge, and the home uniforms will have the names of the other nine shooting victims attached.
With the hope that the dormant CU baseball program could someday see the field again, the Collegians are trying to make collegiate baseball matter to the Boulder community once again. Baby steps.