The worst part of the off-season is upon us.  I figured I would try to try to keep some of us entertained the same way that I have been entertaining myself over the past few days:  Nostalgia.

I have a cabin up in the mountains full of old stuff.  I have been spending a lot of time up there this summer to escape the heat and get away from it all.  One of the things up there is a wood-burning fireplace that we hardly use.  I was futzing around up there, scotch in hand, and saw something interesting poking out of the metal box in which we store newspaper to fuel that fireplace.  I pulled the paper, smoothed it out, and was greeted with this:

via i745.photobucket.com

Glancing at the top, its a Stanley Cup special section from the Rocky Mountain News, dated May 25, 2001.  

Tee hee.  

I glanced through it and found that every article concerns either the Avs or the Devils, and there are a bunch of fun ads like the one I posted above.  When I got home, I tried to go through the RMN archives to get digital copies of these articles to share with you guys, but they are charging a decent amount of money per article to get access to those, so I figured I would just photo and re-type the articles, maybe one a day, to try and keep us a little entertained until Rookie and Training camp.  

Since the ad is a little fuzzy, here are some of the highlights:

* NHL Jersey Player Replica -  Players' names include: Blake, Drury, Roy, Forsberg & Borque. $150. 

* NHL Jersey Blank Replica - $85

* Nike Practice Tee - $18

* CCM Practice Tee - $15

* BlueLine 'Make it a Commitment' Tee - $22

* Zephyr Hammer Avs Fitted Hat - $17

* Zephyr Blizzard Natural Avs Fitted Hat - $17

* Zephyr Breakaway Avs Relaxed Fitted Hat - $17

* New Era Commemorative Stanley Cup Finals Fitted Hat - $24

The bottom lists 12 Garts Sports locations.  Not all styles, sizes, or colors available at all locations.  Quantities limited.  05/25/01 - 05/30/01.