By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Man, Stan Kroenke knows how to have a good time.
The Colorado Avalanche owner, who just celebrated his Los Angeles Rams’ Super Bowl win only four months ago, came strolling through the Ball Arena press area with his two German Shepherds. Dressed nattily in a blue suit, Kroenke was enjoying the Avalanche’s 4-3 overtime win against the two-time defending NHL champs, the Tampa Bay Lightning, in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final Wednesday evening.
I had stayed late in an auxiliary press area, snapping photos of joy-filled post-game fans dancing to the victory music still blaring in the empty arena, while other fans posed for photos snapped by a friendly woman usher working a cell phone for the memorable picture.
I also just had to snap a pic of this work of tin can art — a Stanley Cup replica fashioned from beer cans.
I doubt Kroenke assembled a Stanley Cup replica from beer cans. But he did enjoy walking those two canines in a victory jaunt.
An usher witnessed Kroenke and the well-behaved dogs and could only utter, “That’s the bossman.”
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Mr. Kroenke and all the other NHL fans out there, you better buckle up because this Stanley Cup Final is going to be a helluva hockey ride.
The Lightning and Avalanche are the sport’s two premier teams.
Both teams’ rosters are filled with skilled, speedy and forceful players who showed why the NHL was thrilled to have a talented Avalanche team grapple against a seasoned club seeking a title three-peat.
The Avs, playing in front an electric packed house of win-hungry fans, blew a 3-1 lead only to celebrate a mere minute and 23 seconds into overtime with the 4-3 win.
The Avs’ Andre Burakovsky notched the game-winner, shooting the puck past Tampa’s all-world goalie, Andrei Vasilevskiy.
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Two hours before puck drop, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman — not the most colorful character — cracked jokes with reporters about asking unrelated questions one at a time.
His humor underlined a point he made that there is some sense of normalcy returning to a league that played its post-season in a COVID-19 pandemic bubble two seasons ago and a playoff season after an abbreviated 56-game regular season that included amended division alignments in 2021.
Bettman seemed joyful at the prospect of two talented teams, the Avs and Bolts, launching a championship series in front of 17,778 loud fans. It was the first time I watched a game in this arena after I wrote a story in 1999 for the Denver Post on the building’s groundbreaking in the Platte Valley entertainment district.
It was worth the wait to witness a fantastic game, plus the team owner strolling through the venue with his pets.
I even got to see a worker using a broom to clean an Avalanche rug. It looked like I came for a Stanley Cup Final game and a curling competition broke out.
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Bettman crowed about the league’s revenues.
But the truth is the sport of major league hockey could be so much more.
TV ratings lag way behind the NFL and NBA, which I attribute to the oft-repeated observation that the game on ice does not translate into a riveting product on television.
This game tonight was a showcase for the stunning speed, puck-handling skills and hard-hitting play of men on blades that you would think would attract more eyeballs.
The arenas in the playoffs were packed. The TV ratings are just not there.
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The fans inside the building and at watch parties both inside and out around metro Denver enjoyed a fast Avalanche start.
Goals by first-liners Garbriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin gave the Colorado team a 2-0 lead in the first period.
But the Lightning snapped back with a goal by Nick Paul before the Avs restored the two-goal advantage with a tally by Artturi Lehkonen.
The Avalanche led, 3-1, after one period.
But this Tampa Bay squad is resilient. In period two, Ondrej Palat and Mikhail Sergachev scored within a minute and just like that the Colorado lead had vaporized to a 3-3 deadlock.
There was no scoring in period three.
Off to overtime the game went.
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This is going to be a superb series.
Two superstars in this league, Nathan MacKinnon of Colorado and Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos, did not tally goals tonight.
Avalanche goalie Darcy Kuemper, who came from a sad Arizona franchise in a trade 11 months ago, played well enough to help Colorado jump out to a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven final.
LVSportsBiz.com will be returning to Ball Arena Saturday for Game 2 of this championship round.
LVSportsBiz.com coverage of the NHL Stanley Cup Final is presented by Las Vegas real estate agent Liz Lane and ISM bicycle seats of Tampa