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Memorable night for Hejduk, Avs |
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Rick Sadowski
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The Avalanche head into their "bye week" riding a five-game winning streak and 10-3-1 run that have carried them into the West's second wild card playoff position at the halfway point of the season.
They capped it off Saturday at the Pepsi Center with an extraordinary ceremony to retire Milan Hejduk's No. 23 jersey, followed by a 7-2 rout of Minnesota, all before a raucous overflow crowd of 18,046 that brought back memories of the good ol' days.
Maybe, just maybe, it's back to the future time for this franchise.
"That was a playoff environment, we haven't had that in a long time," said Nathan MacKinnon, who collected three points and has moved into second among NHL scorers with 52 (18 goals, 34 assists). "We stepped up on a big stage. The crowd was excited, and when you needed to step up everybody did. It was a full team effort. We had a great 60 minutes."
With 22 wins and 47 points in the first 41 games, the Avalanche have matched last season's win total and need just one point to match the total for points.
"You can't be comfortable, but we can definitely be proud of ourselves," MacKinnon said. "I mean, no one expected anything out of us this season. We still have 50 percent of the season left, but it's good.
"We're night and day from where we were last year, two years ago, three years ago. We're young and we have a lot of speed and skill. Our veteran guys have been really good and we've been good defensively."
Winning big against the Wild was sweet, too. The Avalanche had managed to knock them off only three times in the previous 16 meetings, and they haven't made the playoffs since that bitter Game 7 loss to Minnesota on home ice in the first round in 2014.
"We had a tough series against these guys -- it seems like yesterday -- a tense seven-game series that left a bad taste in our mouths, and they've gotten the upper hand on us the past few years," MacKinnon said.
Coach Jared Bednar said the atmosphere surrounding the pregame ceremony for Hejduk contributed to the decisive win.
Hejduk, who in 14 NHL seasons -- all with Colorado -- played 1,020 games and amassed 375 goals and 805 points. He won the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy in 2002-03 with a league-leading 50 goals, played a major role when the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2001, succeeded Adam Foote as team captain for the 2011-12 season, and played in three NHL All-Star Games.
He had 34 goals and 76 points in 112 playoff games, and was a three-time Olympian for his native Czech Republic. He won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, and a bronze medal at the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy.
Hejduk, 41, and his immediate family members -- wife Zlatuse and their two boys, Marek and David -- were presented with gifts, and a video tribute was shown on the jumbo boards as the present team members, coaches and staff watched from the bench.
In a surprise move, former linemates Peter Forsberg and Alex Tanguay carried the Stanley Cup onto the ice and embraced Hejduk and his family.
Hejduk's parents made the trip from the Czech Republic to attend, and he was introduced by former teammate and current general manager Joe Sakic.
Hejduk, who barely spoke English when he attended his first training camp in 1998 and was given No. 23, spoke eloquently about his family and his career, much of which took place during the Avalanche's glory years. A fourth-round draft pick of the Quebec Nordiques, he scored his first NHL goal at McNichols Sports Arena and the very first goal to be scored at the Pepsi Center in 1999.
"When I was standing there, I was in the moment," he said later in a press conference. "I enjoyed every second of it."
Four current Colorado players -- Tyson Barrie, Erik Johnson, Gabriel Landeskog (who succeeded Hejduk as captain in 2012) and Semyon Varlamov all played with Hejduk before he retired following the 2012-13 season.
Finally, in another surprise, Hejduk's sons skated to the Zamboni entrance to introduce the No. 23 banner along with the rest of the members of their triple-A team, the Colorado Thunderbirds’ 13-under squad that Hedjuk serves as head coach. They carried it to the spot from which it was hoisted to the rafters.
“They kind of kept me out of the loop on some things," he said later. "I didn't know that Peter and Alex would be here. These two things were definitely a surprise. It was really a special, special night for me.”
Hejduk became the sixth Avalanche player to have his digits retired, joining Sakic (19), Forsberg (21), Patrick Roy (33), Adam Foote (52) and Ray Bourque (77).
“Really awesome, something I will remember forever,” he said. "It was well done by the Avs and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed everything about it. Now it’s going to be fun to come back to the building and see my jersey up there.”
Hejduk said after the ceremony that he never wore the number while growing up in the Czech Republic, that it was merely given to him at his first training camp in Colorado.
"I made the team right away," he said. "It worked really well for me, so I stuck with it. It's a cool number. Once you show up for your first training camp and you make the team, you're not going to change your number. I stayed with it and it was really good to me."
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