Denver Returns As Nhl Play Begins

Mario Lemieux returns to hockey, and hockey returns to Denver - with newly acquired playoff MVP Claude Lemieux.

After taking a year off for health reasons, Mario Le Magnifique takes to NHL ice Saturday following the shortest off-season in league history, but the longest in his life.

“I’m not coming back to be an average player,” Lemieux said. “If I can play 60-70 games and get my back in shape, I can be where I was a couple of years ago.”

The Colorado Avalanche, formerly the Quebec Nordiques, bring hockey back to Denver for the first time since the Colorado Rockies left after the 1981-82 season.

The Avalanche were bolstered with the recent addition of Claude Lemieux, who helped the New Jersey Devils win the Stanley Cup last season.

The Avalanche play host to the Detroit Red Wings in tonight’s only game, and the Devils start the long road in defense of their Stanley Cup championship Saturday when they entertain the Florida Panthers in one of 11 games.

“We’ve got to stay focused and hungry,” Devils defenseman Scott Stevens said. “That shouldn’t be a problem because we’ve got character people. I’d like to see us be very consistent. There’s no reason we can’t be in every game.”

The Devils, and the rest of the 26 NHL teams, will have the “luxury” this time of a good running start on the season. Last season, the lockout prevented that as the league went into its hurry-up offense to get the abbreviated season underway following settlement of the fourmonth labor strife.

Despite a condensed 48-game season, the playoffs still had to be pushed to the latest in history as the Devils completed a four-game sweep of the Detroit Red Wings on June 24.

Lemieux, the star of the postseason, became embroiled in a bitter contract dispute that angered general manager Lou Lamoriello and he was traded in a three-team deal, winding up with Colorado.

With no neutral-site games this year, the NHL has returned to an 82-game season.

“The biggest thing is that we have the luxury of having more practice time,” Stevens said. “Last year, with a lot of games in a short time span, we didn’t have the opportunity to practice much. Now we can keep our consistency better and work on any problems we may face.”

In other games Saturday, it will be the Islanders at Boston, New York Rangers at Hartford, Toronto at Pittsburgh, Philadelphia at Montreal, St. Louis at Washington, Calgary at Tampa Bay, Dallas at Winnipeg, Buffalo at Ottawa, Chicago at San Jose and Colorado at Los Angeles.

Talk of the league in the exhibition season has been the emphasis on obstruction penalties. Officials have been told to enforce these rigidly so that players will be allowed to skate more freely and, the NHL hopes, inject more excitement into a game that was defined as boring by critics last season.

As a result, players are looking ahead to a more wide-open game this season.

“It’ll show who the real skaters are,” Brett Lindros of the Islanders said. “It gives the skill-type players a little more room.”“I think it’s going to give everyone more skating room. It’ll be the toughest down low in our own end. If you don’t use the body and the other guy gains a step, you’re in trouble.”

While the Devils will raise their championship banner at the Meadowlands, the fans in Boston will inaugurate the FleetCenter. It’s the Bruins’ first game in their new building following 61 years at venerable Boston Garden.

The Vancouver Canucks also will open the season in a new building, at General Motors Place arena, but that won’t take place until Monday.