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#ImagineAvs - Are the Avalanche Headed to HBO This Playoff Season?

A cryptic video teaser from the Colorado Avalanche could mean a date with premium TV this spring.

By Cole D Hamilton

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Doug Pensinger

If you were out patrolling the internet today, you may have noticed something well..... "fishy" posted by the Colorado Avalanche team twitter:

Holy copyright infringement batman! That's the intro HBO uses for all their TV.  Otherwise, talk about the teaser-iest teaser that ever did tease, not much information to work with. Then:

It's got to be big if the players are hyping it up on their personal accounts right?  The Avalanche rarely ask their players to retweet this kind of stuff.

On its own, this video doesn't look like much, but with some MHH super sleuthing googling and rampant speculation... I'd say the Avalanche could be headed to HBO this Spring for a 24/7 style show following their return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Impossible you say? Here's a piece from Chris Johnston at The Globe and Mail back in 2011

Few ever thought the NHL would open its doors to camera crews and unfettered access during the regular season, but almost everyone who saw HBO's "24/7" series was glad they did.

While the league will take some time before deciding what to do for an encore, at least one top executive is willing to dream big - chief operating officer John Collins says he's open to the idea of doing something similar during the post-season.

"That would be the ultimate, being able to take fans inside the Stanley Cup playoffs," Collins said Friday in an interview. "We'll look at it. It's certainly not something we'll be able to pull together for this year.

"As long as these things go well, there's no end to it."

Hmmmmmmm.... Not much to go on alone, but Johnston revisited the notion this January after the conclusion of HBO's 3rd season of NHL 24/7.  This time with Sportsnet:

Those who found the third season of HBO’s 24/7 less compelling than the previous two might be interested to know that the cable network hopes to take the behind-the-scenes concept to another level by getting embedded during the playoffs. Word has it that some NHL teams have already been approached to gauge their interest and at least one is open to the idea. While it probably won’t be pulled together by this spring, according to a source, it would be can’t-miss TV for hockey fans if it ever happened.

The plot thickens.

There's no doubt that the likable, youthful Avalanche, their comeback season, and their highly quotable coach would be TV gold.  But don't get too excited Avs fans, because this organization has a history of being notoriously tight-lipped and a behind the scenes tell-all would seem out of character.  This could be something big, or just  small feature, either way, we'll know for sure next week when the Avalanche officially reveal their #ImagineAvs event.

For my part? I'll just wait the 7 days to say I told you so.

UPDATE:

According to the first half of this tweet from Adrian Dater at the Denver Post HBO will not be making a stop in Colorado this Spring:

It will be interesting to see what the #ImagineAvs hashtag ends up marking.  The HBO introduction here is certainly distinctive and seems like an odd departure from most of the Avalanche's new video marketing campaign this season.  Like I said before, we'll know for sure next Monday.