Colorado Avalanche Opening Night Setlist

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Mar 8, 2015; Saint Paul, MN, USA; Colorado Avalanche forward Cody McLeod (55) celebrates his goal in the first period against the Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk (40) at Xcel Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

The Colorado Avalanche are hosting the Minnesota Wild in Colorado’s home opener tomorrow. The puck drops at 7:00 pm MDT, but the festivities begin with the players strolling the red carpet at 3:00 pm.

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This game marks the third time recently that the Colorado Avalanche have opened their season against the Minnesota Wild. We all know what happened last year — the two teams played first in Minnesota and two days later in Colorado. The Avalanche were shut out both times.

The Avalanche also opened the shortened 2012-13 season against the Wild in Minnesota. It was a 4-2 loss.

That’s all water under the bridge, and we’re not going to focus on that. Instead, let’s get geared up to see some Avalanche hockey again with a motivational set list.

Now, it would be easy to just lay out the set list used by the team at the Pepsi Center. While it’s a great list put together by the hard working crew, let’s look at some different songs to get us geared for tomorrow night specifically and Avalanche hockey overall.

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“Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons

Ok, we have to start out with the music video the Colorado Avalanche made during the 2013-14 season. It may seem a little cheesy, but remember the spirit of that season.

The Why Not Us season really did feel like an Avs New Age. We had our exciting young players in the likes of captain Gabriel Landeskog, center Matt Duchene and rookie Nathan MacKinnon. These guys weren’t just young and exciting — they were hip enough to make a music video!

Besides that, we had our beloved stars back. Three players whose numbers the Colorado Avalanche had retired had returned to usher in that Avs New Age. Adam Foote was the new defensive consultant. Joe Sakic was our general manager. And, of course, Patrick Roy our head coach.

Remember the magic of that season? If you were a new Avs fan, you got hooked on the excitement. If you were a veteran like me, you started hoping the glory days were back.

Ok, enough with sentimentality. We all know that season ended with a heartbreaking Game 7 loss against the hated Minnesota Wild. Let’s explore those feelings for a minute.

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“You’re Going Down” by Sick Puppies

This song is great to get pumped up and ready for the game. We’re all “hyped up out of control, ” right?

I don’t know why the Colorado Avalanche don’t just play this game at the beginning of every Avalanche-Wild game. The lyrics are perfect for the budding rivalry:

“It’s been a long time coming
And the table’s turned around
‘Cause one of us is going
One of us is going down!”

It has been a long time coming — don’t you just feel the intensity of how badly you want the Colorado Avalanche to finally beat the Minnesota Wild on opening night?!

Because, yes, as we are taking “a trip down memory lane” — and we don’t like it, right?

Personally, the parts of the song that I really want to address to the Minnesota Wild are no Rated G, so kiddos skip to the next slide.

Here they are:

“This is hardly worth fighting for
But it’s the little petty shit that I can’t ignore
When my fist hits your face and your face hits the floor.”

“You can treat this like another all the same,
But don’t cry like a bitch when you feel the pain.”

I literally think of the Minnesota Wild every single time I hear those two lyrics.

Ok, I was inspired last summer to make a hype video out of this song. (Again, don’t hate at the amateur nature.) If I re-made the video, obviously Gabriel Landeskog punching Mikko Koivu would replay several times.

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“Re-Education” by Rise Against

Part of the reason I’ve selected this song by Rise Against is that I’m certain the Colorado Avalanche made a hype video out of this song, but for the life of me I can’t find it. Every time I hear it, I picture Avalanche hockey scenes from the video.

Anyway, the music itself in this song gets you pumped up. It starts with an obvious build up then just jumps right in with hard rock. The drums, guitar and vocals all pound away with a refrain that’s surprisingly upbeat. (The lyrics are dystopian in nature, but we’ll leave that for now.)

Imagine this song playing just before the team took the ice. The whole crowd would be even more pumped up than we’re bound to be waiting for a chance to “boo” the Minnesota Wild.

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“Wanna Be Starting Something” by Michael Jackson

Holy throwback, right, Avs Nation? This song isn’t so heat-pumping as the previous two.

Ok, first of all, if the Colorado Avalanche played this song during a break in play, there would be so many opportunities to display a dancing crowd on the Pepsi Vision screen. You know people would jam out.

Plus, this would be a good song to start playing in case the Minnesota Wild’s cloggy brand of hockey slowed the game down too much. We’ll all “wanna be startin’ something” in that case.

Ok, let’s move on to another heart-pumping hard rock song.

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“Monkey Business” by Skid Row

This song is similar to “Re-education” in that it starts slow and that just starts pounding away with the hard rock beats. Plus, I love the rebel yell at the beginning.

The lyrics are a little weird, but they also remind me of Matt Duchene. He’s ever a streaky scorer, and for a while it’s like he has a monkey on his back when the goals aren’t going in.

“I ain’t seen the sun since I don’t know when…

Monkey business
Slippin’ on the track
Monkey business
Jungle in black
Ain’t your business if I got
No monkey on my back.”

This song started reminding me of Matt Duchene after that goal celly from a Colorado Avalanche-Nashville Predators game:

Duchene had been in a scoring drought, which this goal broke. Watch how he mimics ripping a monkey off his back.

We all want to rip the monkey that is the Minnesota Wild off our backs, right?

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Goal Horns Old and New

Of course, the best way to rip that monkey off our backs is by hearing a lot of this:

We need the Colorado Avalanche to start scoring early and keep scoring often, right?

It’s funny, listening to a recorded version of the goal horn, the “Hey” song that comes after seems so small. But of course that’s because I’m used to hearing thousands of Avalanche fans scream “Hey!” along with it while pumping their fists.

A lot of people miss the old goal horn, which you can actually hear in the background of the above mash-up. However, here it is in all its throwback glory:

That horn blatting is horribly obnoxious — I love it. Also, with all the sirens, this really gets your adrenaline pumping even faster than it already is after watching a sweet Avalanche goal.

So, what about you, Avs Nation? What songs are on your playlist as you get hyped up for the season opener Colorado Avalanche vs Minnesota Wild?

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