Time to Exchange Blackhawks Support for Avalanche Love

On this Boxing Day, as legions of gift recipients are exchanging funky surprises for items they truly value, let’s hope Chicago Blackhawks fans in Colorado will have a similar epiphany. And let’s hope they descend on Pepsi Center to show their support for the home team, the Colorado Avalanche, at tomorrow’s game.

Glitter Appeal of the Blackhawks

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The Chicago Blackhawks are a shiny team, like the glitter of plastic bling on a pair of knockoff jeans. For newbie fans, though, the meaning is no deeper.

Yes, the Chicago Blackhawks have won a couple Stanley Cups in recent years. The Colorado Avalanche have won two Stanley Cups, too, in their relatively short history — it’s not like I’m suggesting we support a loser team like the Minnesota Wild, who’ve never won anything of note.

Think about it this way — the ‘Hawks have been around nine decades and have won only five Stanley Cups. By comparison, the (almost) 20-year-old Avalanche have won a Cup a decade.

The Avalanche also have a goalie-cum-coach, Patrick Roy, who has almost single-handedly won as many Stanley Cups as the Blackhawks in their long history. He has four. That’s a winner.

Which brings up another point — just 10 or so years ago, the Blackhawks were a loser team that could barely give away hockey tickets. Attendance in their arena made the Pepsi Center looked downright packed. They’re no better than the Avs. On the contrary, the glitter of the Blackhawks is cubic zirconia at best.

Hockey Love Satisfaction

Did you get any glittery gifts for the Holidays that just aren’t you? Could be something expensive, like a gold watch that doesn’t match your hipster style. Could be a gift trying to change you, like a gym membership when you wanted a beer-of-the-month club membership. You probably want to exchange that lovely but unwanted gift.

Feel free to exchange your Blackhawk support in a similar way. In case you’re not quite convinced yet that it’s an unwanted gift, let’s look at it another way.

If you haven’t supported a team through the thin, the thick isn’t nearly as satisfying. If you weren’t supporting the Blackhawks when everybody else considered them a group of losers, glorying in their success now rings hollow.

Think about a time you wanted something so bad, be it a material item or the achievement of a goal. If you worked for it, saved for it, planned for it, finally achieving that dream felt good, right? Imagine if someone had just handed the success to you in that first moment of wanting it. Would it have felt good? Sure. Would it have felt as good? No way.

Loving the Avalanche right now is the same way. This young, talented group is going to go places. They have their historical heroes back in Joe Sakic, Adam Foote and Patrick Roy. And they have some skilled youngsters playing exciting hockey — a style of hockey, by the way, that’s not too different from the Blackhawks’.

So, think about what great dividends you’ll get when the Avalanche start winning like they should. Maybe you noticed how excited Avalanche fans were when the team made the playoffs last season. When they then won the Central Division, we were delirious. Imagine how much more fun it’s going to be as the Avalanche progress in the playoffs in the near future. Picture Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog lifting that Stanley Cup for the first time ever. We Avs fan will be apoplectic with joy.

If you were in Denver last April, you saw how quickly the city rallied around the Avalanche. If you’re in Colorado, you see how the Broncos are supported. You see what great fanfare we put in our spots teams. Time to join us.

You don’t want to be on the outside looking in for that magic.

Leave behind your Chicago Blackhawks gear. Get to Pepsi Center a little early tomorrow, and buy a jersey with real substance here in Colorado — an Avalanche jersey. Support local — support the Colorado Avalanche.

It’s better over here anyway.