[Americanario gets the honors of announcing the news!  More to come. -Joe]

It has been announced that Sakic will be back for another season. He has signed for 1yr  and will be paid $6 million (roughly $750,000 less than 07-08).

Good to have you back Joe.

So now we'll really wonder what that press conference tomorrow is all about?

From the Denver Post

Sakic will return to the Avs

From Rocky Mountain

Sakic to return for another season

Totally ripped from Die By The Blade, I figured I'd have a look which Avalanche player will have the best personal stat, according to the ever trustworthy EA Sports NHL 09, Keep in mind they assume Foppa and Sakic will resign* re-sign:

Other notables are:

Svatos receiving 80 for passing

Foppa receiving 95 for toughness (Footer only had 90, and Lappy 86)

Arny only getting 82 for speed. Don't they know he can run like the wind?

Foppa having a better (more accurate) wrister than Uncle Joey

The Face-off Statistic in general

Kyle Cumiskey not being in the mix.

I'm not doing the goalie stats, cus they paint a VERY bleak picture, which makes me wonder wether the EA Sports team has ever watched Budaj play. I seem to remember that, for NHL08 they gave Budaj and Theo pretty much the same ratings. That all changed....

I can add some actual statistics in the mix if anyone is bothered, but I don't have any more time today.

What do you all think of this? I know we're pretty gonna have a high mountain to climb if our 2 old vets, together with Mats "why haven't EA added him to the Avs roster yet" Sundin don't return, but is it as bad as EA makes it out to be? Is Liles really that much slower than Jay Bouwmeester (7 points difference)?  Is Phadouche's slapshot that much harder than Sakic's (93 vs. 85)? Is Hemsky a better deker (96) than Paul Stastny (86)??

Let's start moaning about the fact the general public thinks the Avs are dead in the water...

*Update 1: That was bad.

Ok, I've said it many a times this offseason, but this truly has to be the biggest load of crap I have read -  about Cap'n Joe all season.

The idea of Sakic wanting attention as much as Avery for gawd sake?  Only playing for money?  Man, this guy is way off... and it must be a very boring offseason to have to dish on Roy to boot.  Bash away, Avs fans...

Gossip   While Mats Sundin and Joe Sakic have kept half the civilized hockey world holding its breath over their play-or-not-to-play decision, we’ll unequivocally assert that each will return to the NHL for 2008-09. The reason is as obvious as a $6 million contract. Who’s kidding whom? These guys love the moolah – and attention – as much as Sean Avery and Alley Oop Ovechkin.   If either of them packs it in, it’ll be the upset of the half-century; roughly equivalent to the shrinking of Patrick Roy’s ego. …

The star has a new story up regarding the ongoing civil lawsuit between the Steve Moore camp and the 'Nucks, Big Bertha, Crawford, etc.

According to Crawford:

"Just prior to the attack on Moore, Bertuzzi had been on a shift to kill a penalty, had missed the shift change and had remained on the ice for longer than the rest of his line," states Crawford's third-party defence.

"After being directed to get off the ice, Bertuzzi was on his way back to the bench when, suddenly and without warning, he turned around and skated back in the direction of Moore ... and attacked Moore. This was not done under any specific or general direction or encouragement from Crawford, was a direct disobedience of the instruction that Bertuzzi had been given from the bench to get off the ice, and was a violation of Bertuzzi's duties which Crawford could not be expected to have reasonably anticipated, let alone control."

All of that was in response to Bertuzzi's claim that he acted the way he did out of negligence on Crawford's part. Is anybody really surprised that this has turned into a case of finger-point by two of the biggest douchebags in the history of the sport?

As an Av season ticket holder, I received this form via regular mail last week to order individual game tickets before they go on sale to the general public.  I have received similar forms and offers in the past, but there was a new twist to this form.  In addition to the different price range columns on the form with rows for each home game, there was a "Free Game" column, with only 3 games (both Detroit games and Pittsburgh) blacked out.  The Avs are offering season ticket holders 8 free tickets this season, with an option to take them as follows:

8 tickets to one game
4 tickets each to two games
2 tickets each to four games

I'm not sure if everyone is going to get what they request, but I found this whole thing rather alarming.  Do the Avs already know Super Joe isn't coming back and that they'll be sitting on a payroll well below the salary cap this season?  And this is only a preemptive move to fill seats they know will be empty otherwise?  Crap.  Hopefully I'm reading too much into it. 

I didn't think so. Neither does anybody else.  Found this quote in the print version of the rocky mountain news, but couldn't find it online to post a link.  Since its been boring lately I figured I'd just write it in since it was short and I wanted to rip on Detroit a little bit.

"$1.  Thats what a house in Detroit sold for recently. The home, located close to the Detroit City Airport, was foreclosed upon last summer, after it was purchased for $65,000 in 2006, according to The Detroit News.

    The bank was so eager to sell the foreclosed property, it lowered the price to $1 in a final attempt to find a buyer.  According to the newspaper, 14 days after the property was listed for $1, a woman purchased the house as 'an investment property'.  The property taxes will run the new owner $3,900 in 2009."

Even for a dollar no one actually wants to live there.  At $1 it still took two weeks for someone to buy it.  Wish I woulda known.  Hell, for a dollar I'd have bought it, just to paint it in avs colors and decorate it in avs merchandise.  Maybe have a few effigies hanging in the front yard.  Then, when the a-hole Wings fans burnt it down I could have collected a nice insurance check!

IGN has posted the NHL09 rankings for all NHL players.  (Just click on the captain to see the teams rankings.)  There are few items that caught my eye though for anyone interested.  

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In just another example of why Detroit should be bulldozed (completely, not just the inner city), I present to you this classy comment from an apparent Red Wangs fan over at Puck Daddy, in response to the five suggestions made by Ross McKeon on how to improve the NHL:

8.

The solution to #5 (and to so many other similar problem) - Get rid of Bettman. #5b: Maybe try a non-Jew for a change as commish?! Between him and Stein's performance, and in spite of traditional ice hockey hotbeds like Israel, maybe it's time for a change?

 

hockeytown blood posted on Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008 12:28 pm EDT

I mean, I'm no fan of Bettman, but I hardly think his religious background has anything to do with his mismanagement of the National Hockey League.  But, then again, I'm not a moronic bigot from Detroit.  I could be wrong.

As many Avs fans are looking toward the new season with suspect and bewilderment, Scott Burnside thinks the San Jose Sharks might be heading in the same direction as the Avs.  Back in early July, Burnside looked at the free agent signings and other moves of the Sharks and compared them to the Avalanche organization of not so many years past: Boyle trade creates questions for both Sharks and Lightning.

All of a sudden, the San Jose Sharks look like the old Colorado Avalanche, filled to the brim with aging stars ready to hunt down the Stanley Cup and with warning flags going up all over the place for the future.

Though the Avs still have some of those aging stars and did actually find some success on 2001, we have seen the so called fruits of acquiring playoff rental players in exchange for young talent. San Jose has yet to hoist the Holy Grail of Hockey getting knocked out of the playoffs in the second round in each of the last three seasons.

The moves are reminiscent of the path followed by Blake's old team in Colorado, a franchise that damned the torpedoes and assembled a talented, veteran squad that won a Stanley Cup in 2001. Since the lockout, though, the Avs have struggled to replenish their reserve of young talent and have yet to return to contender status.

The Avs do have some good youth in the program, but the distance between veteran players; Joe Sakic, Adam Foote, and Milan Hejduk; and young future stars like Paul Stastny, Wojtec Wolski and Marek Svatos may be to big of a gap to keep the Avs among the elite organizations of the league. Are these young stars ready to take over the reigns for the Avalanche? Will San Jose learn from the Avs mistakes before it's too late?

via www.sportsnet.ca

[Every once in a while a FanPost makes me wish I'd done the research myself and posted the information first.  This is one such FanPost.  Pension Plan Puppets takes time to share with us the Leafs' fan experience (and some stats) of new Avalanche backup goaltender Andrew Raycroft.  Read it and weep. -Joe]

Joe brought up this Adrian Dater blog post last week and I meant to post this then but real-life intervened so bear with me as I proceed to create the same sense of dread in Avs fans as my fellow Leaf fans felt all last season knowing that Mr. Raycroft could go in net at any moment. All you need to know to make you pucker up at the thought of seeing "Starting Goalie - A. Raycroft" on a game sheet can be found in the archives at my site...

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