Despite Beating the Champs, Avalanche Have Proper Perspective

Filed under: Avalanche

Colorado was one of the NHL's best stories last year, universally picked to do nothing, jumping out to a nice start and making the playoffs on the back of goalie Craig Anderson and some super play from a lot of youngsters.

Now, the Avalanche are a known quantity, and they tested that right away on Thursday night by opening their season against the Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks with a 4-3 overtime win.

This elicited almost a yawn from Avs forward T.J. Galiardi before the game. Colorado isn't going to use the opener as some sort of gauge. The Avalanche know what they have.

"I don't know if it's a god thing or a bad thing that we're opening with them," Galiardi told FanHouse by phone before the game. "We've got to be the same against every team. We have to do the same things every night. We have to play our own game or we'll get stomped on. Hopefully, we'll get positive results, but it doesn't really matter who we're playing."

Eva Green Eva Longoria Eva Mendes