Seriously? It's Monday already? How does that happen so quickly? As an added bonus, my son starts school again on Wednesday. Leaves are already dropping all over my yard and I saw a giant display of Halloween candy at the grocery store this weekend. Ugh. I had an excellent summer, but it's almost over now and I'm not sure I'm ready to come to grips with that, even if it does mean that a new hockey season is just around the corner.

Here's what went on in the Avosphere during the last week:

• The Avalanche announced a, well, avalanche of number changes for the upcoming season. We discussed it here, of course, but Anyone But Detroit as a totally cool pictoral breakdown. It would be cooler if the jerseys weren't so ugly, of course, but I digress. Oh, and the team roster at has been updated to reflect the new numbers.
• Disgruntled Avs Blogger took a quick look at Craig Anderson's home and away splits. The bad news? He didn't play as well at the BankAtlantic Center as he did away from it. The good news? He's only going to play, at most, one game there next season.
  
• Brian Thompson has some hopes that the Wings signing of Todd Bertuzzi might rekindle the old Blood Feud. Doubtful, in my opinion. As the soundbyte goes, he's dead, Jim.
• Adrian points out that the Avs are really pushing their 14-game pack. Buy the pack and you get tickets to Joe Sakic night. Great for folks buying the packs, maybe not so great for folks looking to buy tickets to that game individually. Both Detroit games are included in the pack, as is the final game against LA. You also get all 10 "Alumni Night" games, which will be discussed in the next bullet point. The full list of games (plus ordering info) is here.
• Back in July, the Avalanche announced that they'd be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Pepsi Center throughout the season. It appears that the above-mentioned Alumni Nights will be part of those festivities, when former Avalanche players will be celebrated before the game. Joe Sakic night would be the first. Although they haven't announced which players will be honored, they have announced the dates: 10/23 (Carolina), 11/6 (Chicago), 11/23 (Philadelphia), 12/15 (Washington), 12/26 (Dallas), 1/16 (New Jersey), 1/31 (Rangers), 2/6 Edmonton, 3/1 (Detroit).
• Speaking of schedules, Angélique has a great compilation of the respective league schedules for Avalanche prospects.
• Norm Jones is no longer the radio PbP guy for the Avalanche.
• GEO would like everyone to know that he's an Avs Lova not an Avs Ranter. Or something to that effect.
• Shane has a good look at Avalanche theme music.
• Finally, the NHL updated their NHL Fans section, with details here. This is not totally my cup of tea, but I am impressed with the effort the league is making in this "new media" area. One interesting item: all 30 teams have an official twitter feed (the Leafs' feed isn't listed, but it does exist). The Avs - with 2 tweets total - are the least prolific team by a large margin. Like you didn't already know that.
  

Another week of the summer is gone. Here's a look at Avalanche-related stories from the last 7 days or so.

Joe Sakic continues to dominate the news the way he used to dominate on the ice. He got on one of them old-fangled radio thingies the other day and said stuff. His offseason intentions still aren't exactly clear. After listening, Terry Fri thinks Sakic's final decision is either due in weeks...or just really soon. Adrian Dater is pretty sure he's coming back. Shane's too polite to say so, but I think even his patience is wearing thin. I could go on - all the hockey sites started picking the DP's articles, but everything seems to be just variations of the above.

The second-hottest stuff is all the Mats Sundin baloney. Since Sundin once played for the Nordiques, the rumor du jour is that Sundin is just chomping at the bit to come to denver and reunite with Joe Sakic and Adam Foote. This one's been thrown out as a lazy "what if" by bloggers all summer long, which means at some point Eklund is going to hear about it. Sigh. I don't enjoy wasting my time debunking Eklund's lame rumors, so I'll leave this one to a Canuck blogger, Sean Zandberg. Tom Benjamin gives a nice take on the Sundin Saga as well, while Spector had a decent little article on Sakic, Sundin and Teemu Selanne the other day.

In a hurclean effort, Mile High Joe released not one but TWO Top Avalanche articles. #13 is...#13, Valeri Kamensky. And #12 is Sandis Ozolinsh. I've enjoyed reading these almost as much as I've enjoyed ribbing Joe for drawing them out ALL FUCKING SUMMER.

There was a bit of news in the prospect front. Jori reports that the under 20 Summer Camp has wrapped. The lone Avalanche there was Kevin Shattenkirk. Meanwhile, the Avs have signed Tom Fritsche and Nigel Williams. I don't profess to be an expert on the youngsters, but it sure seems like Williams has been generating a bit of buzz lately.

The Avalanche National TV schedule was announced today. I don't like the Vs games, because when there's an early game and a late game, the Avs end up getting joined in process. I was going to rant about it, but Shane beat me to it. Seriously, how hard would it be to move the Avs back a half hour? Is the midnight bullriding crowd (all 3 of them) going to be up in arms?

Cammi Granato never played for the Avalanche, but since her brother is the coach and her husband does color commentary for the Oilers, I guess it's pertinent that she's going to the Hall of Fame. Seriously, that's pretty cool. [EDIT: I guess Ray Ferraro is no longer doing color for Sportsnet]

Jibblescribbits has a great rant about the Avs' notorious Iron Curtain. Puck Daddy (does one put that on a business card?) tapped Dater to fix the mess we like to call the NHL.

The Burgundy and White game is September 22nd. Be there or be elsewhere.

Around the NW, the Oilers will be retiring the #9 of Glenn Anderson. And Black Dog Hates Skunks looks at the (surprisingly) nice job Kevin Lowe did this summer before getting promoted. Former Oiler (and Avalanche prospect) Jaret Stoll is engaged...to Rachel Hunter. If only hockey bloggers had the same pull with the ladies that hockey players do...

Yankee Canuck has started speculating on who will be the first new captain in Vancouver in 8 years. I voted for the current leader, Willie Mitchell.

I haven't had a chance to read all these yet, but Five Hole Fanatics has a series of write-ups on the Flames - all about new guys and guys with some questions marks. They also make a good argument against drafting goalies. Oh, and it looks like the Flames are in a bit of cap trouble. So, does that mean they can't sign Mats Sundin?

Have a good week, folks.

Other than yesterday's discovery, it was a rather dull week in Avalanche land.

To start things off, Joe took a look at Tony Granato. Twice. In somewhat related news, it looks like the Avalanche wanted to interview AHL coach Mike Havelid for a job on Granato's coaching staff, but the Blackhawks turned them down. Havelid has since been promoted to an assistan job with Chicago. And, just to confuse the hell out of me, Tony's brother Don Granato is now the head coach of the AHL Chicago Wolves.

It wouldn't really be summer without updates on the whereabouts of Peter Forsberg. This week, we have Foppa actually skating in Sweden. And golfing. And pitching (okay, that one's old news). And, apparently he played a little hockey too. Quite well, I should add. Yeah, he's coming back.

And, if we're going to talk about Foppa, you know we'll be talking about that guy no GMs want to sign, Joe Sakic. Shane was shocked to read that Sakic is more likeable than Crosby. But you don't care about that. You want to know if he's coming back. And, since he knows when training camp begins, he's definitely coming back. And, in case that isn't enough to sway him, he should stop trying to decide and just listen to Steve Yzerman. At any rate, Jori is reporting that Super Joe will be on the FAN on Monday morning. I wonder if any interesting topics might come up. I hope it's good news, because someone at The Hockey News thinks we're in big trouble if he doesn't. (I agree)

Oh, and if you're into the whole radio, Dater takes a deeper look at the situation, with additional reading here.

Not many other news on the players, unless you count Andrew Raycrofts confusion about his goalie coach. Sheesh. Oh, and Joe finally released another entry in his glacial series on the 19 All-Time Avs. That should be finished up by 2019, for sure.

There's some minor time-changes for games this year. Also, for you Lake Erie fans, the AHL schedule is out. One guy you won't see next year is Eric Healey. He's headed to Europe.

And that about covers it for the Avalanche this week. Around the league, Abel to Yzerman has started an entertaining series to create the Detroit Red Wing rivalry depth chart. Good reading for those of you with thick skin. (Not you, Bob!). The Canucks are losing Byron Ritchie to Switzerland. That's also where the Wild's Sean Hill is headed. Do they have better steroids there? And, Mikka Kipprusoff has changed his training habits in an effort to return to his old form.

Have a nice weekend, folks.

In a return to something I started during the dog days of last summer, here's a look at some Avalanche related articles from around the net in the last week or so...

Marek Svatos avoided arbitration by signing a 2 year, $4.1 million deal. Joe Sakic, of course, is still ignoring my prayers. With Sakic still in non-commital mode, the Avs have salary cap room to burn. There's some recent speculation that the Avalanche might be one of the teams pursuing Mats Sundin. Adrian Dater thinks this is bunk, and I agree with him on that. Oh, and in that same entry, he reiterated his belief that the Avs will stink next year (I'm not sure I'm quite there on that one):

[I]t doesn’t matter whether Sakic comes back or not. Because the Avs as they are presently constituted aren’t going anywhere next year, even if Sakic came back. The forwards are too old, the third-and-fourth lines are going to be in the penalty box all the time and getting scored upon, and the goaltending isn’t good enough. So, take all the time in the world you want, Joe, the end result will be the same.

So, Dater isn't impressed. Darren Thompson from the Bleacher Report agrees, and predicts we'll miss the playoffs next year in his NW offseason report. Some new blogger at The Hockey News also thinks the Avs have had a ho-hum summer. Of course, since these are the same clowns who think there are 18 better hockey logos than the Avs, I'm not sure we can really count them. MitchellW is a bit more optomistic than the rest, and offers 8 reasons the Avs will do better. And, just in case they don't, here's a list of some of the top UFAs for next summer. Here's another list, focusing on just the NW.

Andrew Raycroft thinks he still has it. I, for one, hope he's right.

The Avalanche announced a minor schedule change, moving their December 10th home game against the Kings a day up to December 9th (the article has the original game on December 20th, which is incorrect). They also have a new scout, in Guy Perron.

Recently, our beloved Jibblescribbits had the opportunity to dress up like a fairy princess and took the opportunity to gauge fan popularity in Denver. Speaking of those Denver-based fans, they'll be listening to the Avs on a different station next year, as the Avs are moving to AM 1510. I've never been to Denver, but this move seems to be a shade unpopular. Kroenke also extended some sort of ticket deal thingy that I don't understand in the slightest.

Around the league, the Wings signed Valtteri Filppula to a 5-year, $15 million deal. I hope he spends some of that money on some new eyebrow dye. While the Wings were locking up blondie, Scott Bowman defected to Chicago.

Back home in the NW division, the Oilers kicked GM Kevin Lowe upstairs and replaced him with Canucks assistant-GM Steve Tambellini. Oiler fans were a tad bit surprised. Canuck blogger Sean Zandberg wonders why Vancouver can't attract decent free agents. But at least Canucks fans can be proud of one thing: their old Flying V jersey was voted the worst piece of sports clothing in media history. (I happen to own one of my own). And the Wild waived Mark Parrish.

In the former Avs department, former coach Marc Crawford will be joining Hockey Night in Canada next year as an in-game analyst. Our other former coach, Joel Quenneville, had been rumored to be a frontrunner for the vacant Islanders position, but he will instead take a year off for moustache maintenance. And Dan Hinote got married, and a lot of Avalanche players and other celebs were in attendence.

Oh, and apparently the head of the Democratic National Convention landed a sweet prize after the Avs beat the Wild in the playoffs:

for example, when the Minnesota Wild and the Colorado Avalanche were in the NHL playoffs, we had a little bet ... fortunately the Avalanche won, and we received a whole mess of Minnesota walleye fish, which we donated to the Denver Rescue Mission.

Yum.