Come October 1st, Avs fans with DirecTV may not be able to see the opening night game.  (Luckily, the Sakic ceremony will be on Altitude.....I think.  It may just be a pre-game thing with the actual raising of #19 to the rafters occurring on Versus).  I have Comcast so I am not worried but I feel for everybody else including DDC.

So here is a run down of your options.

Go to a friends house with Comcast/dish.

• pros:  1.  Cheap.  You may have to supply drinks and pay to order a pizza, but it is cheaper than going to the bar (unless you go alone in which case I feel bad for you).  It is also pretty casual depending on how well you know this friend.  And if you REALLY know them, it could be REALLY casual.

•             2.  Good company.  You have someone to watch the game with.  Also, if your hardcore and need to punch a wall if the Avs are down 6-0, it's not your wall you need to repair.

•             3.  You have a place to crash if you drink too much.  That's a given.

• cons:  1.  Friend may not like hockey.  You may have to pull an "I owe you one dude" but a true friend should still let you watch.  They can get back to watching Desperate Housewives later, this is too important.

•             2.  Weird house rules.  Say they have small children sleeping down the hall.  How do you think they will feel if you scream F*** YEAH ANDERSON after a great save?

•             3.  The Bail Factor.  Everybody bails at times.  Say its an hour before the game and your getting ready to go to your friends house early to watch the Sakic Ceremony and you get the call, "Sorry dude but my parents are in town and I forgot.  You can't come over unless you want to join in on some Monopoly."   Is there anything more frustrating?  You spend the rest of the night either trying to find a sports bar or wondering if you can buy a gun without a background check.

           RATING:  9.5 out of 10 for Colorado residents.  Your friend is probably an Avs fan.

                            8.0 out of 10 out of state.  They are your friend and should help out.

Sports Bar

• pros:  1. They cater to you.  They want you to come in and watch the out of state game that you can't see otherwise.  Also, you may get some happy hour deals if you find the right place.  They also don't judge too harshly on the amount of hot wing sauce on your face.

•             2.  Easy to get friends who don't like hockey to come too.  At least there they can drink until they stop asking you what icing is.

•            3. Make new friends.  You may meet another Avs fan!  Too bad they disagree with you about everything else.  Ignore politics, religion, science, what celebrities you think are hot and stick to sports (Unless they are a Raiders, Lakers, Cowboys, Yankees, Red Sox or Patriots fan of the other sports)  Luckily no Pats fans run this blog.............

• cons: 1.  Competition for TV's.  This actually happened to me once.  My girlfriend and myself was looking for food downtown one night while the Avs game was coming on.  Decided to head into a sports bar only to find about 50 Ohio State fans there taking up almost every TV in the place to watch their thrilling 65-3 game against Montana Christian University or some other stupid cupcake team to inflate their regular season record.  I don't even watch college football and I hate Ohio State because of this.

•            2.  Clientele.  Similar to point 1 but this includes the drunk guy pissing on your leg.

•            3.  The bar may have DirecTV.  The bar may not carry the Avs game forcing to find another one.  As a veteran of the restaurant industry, I know most places either have DirecTV or Dish.  Very few have Comcast, if any.  Hope they have Dish

             RATING:  7.0 out of 10 in Colorado.  Not too much competition on a Thursday night

                              3.0 out of 10 out of Colorado.  Enough competition for them.  Stupid college football game versus two colleges I have never heard of.

Stream it online

• pros: 1.  Comfort of your own home.  Like to watch hockey in your underwear?  No problem here.  Plus you can get drunk and not have to pay for a cab.

•           2.  Significant other can watch something else while you watch hockey.  That is if they don't like hockey themselves and if they don't, why dude why?

•           3.  Cheap.  Unless you like to drink champagne on opening night.  Which is weird and cool at the same time.

• cons: 1.  Quality may be poor.  mmmmm pixelated hockey.

•             2.  Small screen (unless your hook it up to your TV). 

•             3.  You have a crappy computer or slow internet.  Kind of like my computer where any MHH game thread this season over 200 comments is going to be impossible to manage on this POS.

             RATING:  10 out of 10 with a good computer.  Better than nothing

                               2 out of 10 with a poor computer.  Go to the bar.

Radio

• pros:  1.  Better than nothing. 

•             2.  uhhhhh.......Damn this medium is outdated.

•             3.  NHL.com.  The site plays the radio feed.  You would think, if the dispute is still going, they may even have video for a special event such as Joe Sakic night.  For everything NHL.com has done right, there are a hundred other things they could do.

• cons: 1.  No video

•            2.  Repeat #1 over and over.

              RATING:   1 out of 10 in all cases.  Only if you have no other option

Come to MY HOUSE

• pros:  1.  I have Comcast and a pretty nice TV.  No HD set-up (yet) but its still better than my poor friends.

•             2.  I provide free beer.  Food?  Maybe.  But beer is a given. 

•             3.  I am a charming, charismatic individual who you will wish you met years ago so that we could reminisce about old adventures.

• cons:  1.  I may be drunk. 

•             2.  I may steal your wallet

•             3.  I may make you stay much longer than you wanted by forcing you to listen to the entire Foghat catalog.

            RATING:  10 out of 10.  Because what is best in life?  "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentation of their women".