Opening Night: Avs Win As Joe Ride Of Into The Sunset

Opening night 2009 came with little hype, and it will go down as one of the greatest, most memorable nights in Colorado Avalanche history.

On Thursday night, the Colorado Avalanche said goodbye to one of the greatest players to ever lace em' up in the NHL, and undoubtedly the single greatest player to ever wear the Avalanche sweater and "C".  The ceremony was a tear jerker for many people, myself included.  The Colorado Avalanche will miss Joe Sakic dearly in these coming years, as will I, because in my mind, he personifies everything that a professional athlete should be. He's simply the best.

Last night, Joe Sakic was as he always was, humble, gracious and most certainly classy.  He seemed to be genuinely in awe of the moment, and greatly appreciative of everything that the game of hockey had given him.  His reflections were that of a true professional with very real emotions.  He thanked the fans of Denver with a degree of sincerity that hasn't been scene since someone named Elway walked away, and showed why he's so well respected by so many people.

It was an amazing night for the Avalanche fans, for Joe Sakic and the game of hockey.

With Sakic's retirement, the Avalanche have been forced to usher in the "New" Avalanche era.  They're without their longtime face, and now and the younger stars, guys like Wolski, Stastny, Liles and Duchene have to be the new faces of this franchise moving forward.  And, last night's season opener started as well as anyone could have hoped it would, as the Avs got a dominating 5-2 win against the San Jose Sharks.

For the first time in 19 years, the Avalanche took the ice without Sakic on their roster in any capcity.  It was a scary.  It was foreign, and now it's the new reality for this club.  The Avalanche however, unwavering and perhaps inspired by Joe's presence, responded with a resounding stroke of brilliance.

They dominated that game from the first drop of the puck to the final horn sounding.  It was a solid all around performance.  Perhaps their most dominating performance was from one of the more unheralded Free Agent acquisitions they made in goaltender Craig Anderson.

Anderson, made 38 stops on 40 shots and looked absolutely stellar in his own end the entire game, and showed the ability that everyone thought he had.  His butterfly was very good, his angles were spot on all night and his glove looked awfully quick.  It was a solid performance that he should be able to grow on.

The Avs got goals from Tucker, McLeod and Liles in addition to two scored by what appears to be a maturing and developing Wojtek Wolski.  Wolski has taken a lot of criticism over the last couple of seasons for his on again, off again type of play.  This season however, the Avs are hoping that by having him on the top line, could be the turning point.

Matt Duchene brought the Pepsi Center crowd to their feet a couple of times with his superior stick handling skills, and at one point found himself face to face with Evgeni Nabakov.  Even though Duchene didn't score, he did have an assist and logged nearly 15 minutes of ice time in his first professional contest, and considering who they played in the San Jose Sharks, that's impressive.

Fellow rookie Ryan O'Reilly added an assist and was +1 for the night as he logged 11 minutes of ice time, and looked very quick in this contest.

All in all, it was a solid effort all the way around that won this game and they received contributions from everywhere last night -- from the blueliners, the 3rd & 4th lines and of course in net.  It was a spectacular night for the Colorado Avalanche. And as we all saw, even in a suit and tie, Joe Sakic can still dish out the assists.