Colorado Avalanche Preseason Games Should be Streamed Live

Not all Colorado Avalanche games are broadcast, which is a missed opportunity to get fans engaged with the team.

The Colorado Avalanche are finishing up their preseason tomorrow by visiting the Vegas Golden Knights. The game will be on Altitude TV. The home game against the Knights was televised, as was the away game against the Minnesota Wild.

Three other preseason games were not televised. Only one of the Prospect Showcase games had good coverage, while a couple others had very spotty coverage.

Meanwhile, fans have been clamoring to see the games.

It’s true that these games don’t count for anything. Maybe for some settled teams they’re not important either. However, for a rebuilding team like the Colorado Avalanche. a lot of important decisions are being made in response to players’ performances in these games.

That’s why fans want to see the games. It’s not just that we’ve been without Avalanche hockey for five months — though that’s certainly true. It’s also that we’d like to evaluate for ourselves how some of these players are doing.

For instance, I want to a training camp day, watched the well-televised Prospect Showcase game, tried to see one of the choppy transmissions, attended two preseason games in person and watched the broadcast of a third. Thanks to that I was able to see that defenseman Conor Timmins shows a lot of promise. He didn’t make the team this year, but I can judge for myself that he could well earn a contract with his play in the OHL this season.

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And that would be a good thing for the Avalanche.

Avalanche fans are excited for hockey again this year. In a way, that’s a little surprising after the team’s historically bad 2016-17 season. Maybe a lot of fans are just eager to put that bad memory behind them.

I understand that networks such as Altitude Sports have contracts. Maybe those contracts dictate whether or not they can broadcast preseason games on television. However, this is 2017. There should be a way for the games to be televised for viewers who care to make the effort to watch them.

Say, streaming on the team website. That’s how at least one of the Prospect Showcase games was broadcast.

Who would pay for the cameraman? The team, I imagine. In the grand scheme of things, it couldn’t be that expensive, even once you factor in whatever software is needed to send it over the internet. After all, the team has an advertising budget. Broadcasting all Prospect Showcase and preseason games is a good way to generate excitement for the regular season.

Next: Evaluating a Forward roster That's Taking Shape

I’d like to see the Colorado Avalanche spearhead this movement. next season. Clearly there’s a call for it. Until then, we do have the chance to see the final preseason game on TV — action starts at 8:00 pm MT on Altitude.

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