November 26, 1942: "Casablanca" Premieres

November 26, 1942, 75 years ago: Casablanca premieres at the Hollywood Theatre -- not in the Hollywood section, or any other section, of Los Angeles, but in New York. It is the greatest movie of all time.

No, Gone with the Wind is not the greatest. Nor is Citizen Kane. Nor is The Godfather. Nor is Star Wars (and certainly not The Empire Strikes Back).

Casablanca was based on Everybody Comes to Rick's, a play written in 1940 by Murray Burnett and Joan Allson, but not yet staged. It was written after the writers had visited Vienna in 1938, and saw what the Nazis were doing, including the refugee situation they were creating. They couldn't get anyone to produce the play, and sold it to the Warner Brothers film studio for $20,000 -- about $300,000 in today's money.

So the play was re-written by twin brothers Julius and Philip Epstein, and Howard Koch. (Philip's grandson is baseball executive Theo Epstein.) All 3 were Jewish New Yorkers.

The director was Michael Curtiz, a Hungarian Jew, although not a refugee: He came to America in 1926 because the Warner Brothers had been impressed with his work in the film industry in Germany's interwar Weimar Republic. He directed Errol Flynn in Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood. He directed James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy. He directed both Cagney and Humphrey Bogart in Angels with Dirty Faces. And he would later direct Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye in White Christmas. So he was equally at home with adventure films and musicals, and Casablanca has elements of both.

Casablanca is set in December 1941, apparently just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, in Casablanca, in French-controlled Morocco -- or, as Captain Renault called it, "Unoccupied France." In the film, as in real life, it was a link in a chain of refugee ports. People would flee their various European homelands as they were taken over by the Nazis, and arrive in North Africa.

The example cited at the beginning of the film: French people would take the train from the capital of Paris to the port city of Marseille; then a ferry across the Mediterranean seat to Oran, in Algeria, then controlled by France; then, any way they could across the North African desert, on foot if they had to, to Casablanca.

From there, they would try to obtain an exit visa, or a letter of transit, to get on a plane from Casablanca to Lisbon, Portugal. (Like neighboring Spain, Portugal then had a fascist government; but, also like Spain, they were neutral in World War II, not aiding the Nazis, and did not turn refugees over to them.) And from Lisbon, they would get on a transport ship to America. But if they couldn't get an exit visa or a letter of transit, they were stuck, to be preyed upon by the city's price-gougers and con artists.

The major characters:

* Humphrey Bogart plays Rick Blaine, a New York native who, for a reason the film never reveals, cannot return to America. Although he says he is neutral in the war, Captain Renault reveals that Rick aided both Ethiopia when invaded by Fascist Italy in 1935, and the Spanish Republic when the fascists started the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Rick says he got paid handsomely both times. Renault reminds him that the winning side would have paid him more, and accuses him of secretly being a sentimentalist.

Rick runs what he calls "a saloon," but is also a casino. He does well, and is respected by the refugees, some of whom he employs, one of whom is his girlfriend. But he is also willing to allow Nazi officials inside. He receives 2 letters of transit for safekeeping, because the man who had them had killed 2 Nazi officers to get them, and is soon himself arrested and killed in custody.

* Dooley Wilson plays Sam (his last name is never revealed), Rick's piano player, who had been with him in Paris as well. Although Sam is black, and calls Rick "Boss" to his face and "Mr. Rick" to others, Rick treats him as a friend, and trusts him completely -- to the point where he hides the letters of transit in Sam's piano. In real life, Wilson was a drummer, and had never played piano before, so he had to fake playing it.

* Claude Rains, an English actor, plays Captain Louis Renault, police prefect of Casablanca. He tries to stay out of politics: "I blow with the prevailing wind, and the prevailing wind is from Vichy." Meaning the Nazi-dominated new French government. He is the man who must decide whether to approve exit visas from the city, and, with women, is not above trading them for sex  -- something the film can only imply, due to the Hays Code. But Rick says Louis always keeps his word. And there have been times when Louis has had to close Rick's saloon, and Rick has had to bribe him to reopen it.

* Ingrid Bergman, a Swedish actress, plays Ilsa Lund, a Norwegian woman with a flair for languages. In a flashback sequence, we see Rick and Ilsa in love in Paris. He asks her why she is not already married. She says she was, but that her husband is dead. As the Nazis arrive in June 1940, they have to flee. At the last minute, just as Rick and Sam are to board the last train out of Paris to Marseille, Sam hands Rick a note from Ilsa: She can't come with him. She had found out her husband was alive.

* Paul Heinreid, an Austrian actor, plays Victor Laszlo, a Czech resistance fighter, who has escaped from a Nazi concentration camp, and is trying to reach America. He is Ilsa's husband. And they show up at Rick's together.

* Conrad Veidt, a German actor with a Jewish wife, who rather enjoyed playing Nazis in order to make them look bad, plays Major Heinrich Strasser, the Nazi officer pursuing Laszlo.

Laszlo has been promised the letters of transit, to use for himself and Ilsa. Renault finds out that Rick and Ilsa used to be an item, and bets Rick 10,000 francs that he'll end up using the letters for himself and Ilsa, stealing Laszlo's wife and leaving him to the wolves.

Rick has a plan, which includes selling his casino to a rival, Signor Ferrari, played by Sydney Greenstreet, with the promise to keep all his employees, including Sam, on at the same salary. In order for his plan to work, he has to let Renault -- and Ilsa -- think that Rick's prediction that he will sell Victor out is exactly what he's doing.

But when they get to the airport -- filmed at the Van Nuys airport outside Los Angeles, the only scene not filmed on a Hollywood soundstage -- Rick gives Laszlo the letters, and reveals that he's no longer neutral: He's on the Allies' side.

He then tells Ilsa to go with Victor, with the famous speech that if she doesn't, "you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life." She asks, "But what about us?" He says, "We'll always have Paris." And he closes by giving her the toast he used to deliver there: "Here's looking at you, kid."

As the plane is taxiing down the runway with the Laszlos aboard, Strasser arrives. He gets on the phone to air-traffic control to try to stop the plane. He and Rick shoot at each other, but Rick shoots first and kills him.

Renault discovers/recovers his patriotism as well, and covers for Rick, and tells him that the 10,000 francs he owes Rick will cover their escape expenses. As they walk off, not into a sunset like Western movie heroes but into a fog, the same fog into which the plane disappeared, Rick says, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

The 10,000 francs that Rick and Louis had bet? In December 1941, that was worth considerably less than it sounds to current American ears: About $214, or about $3,568 today, 75 years later. Still not an amount you want to lose, if only for pride. In current French money? 3,163 euros.

There was an urban legend that Ronald Reagan, then a rising star in Hollywood, was the original choice to play Rick. It wasn't true, and it probably came about due to the facts that Reagan went on to become President, and "casa blanca" is Spanish for "white house."

It would take until 1991 for Everybody Comes to Rick's to be staged, as written, anywhere in the world, in London, running for 6 weeks. That same year, the Hollywood Theatre in New York, having long since become the Mark Hellinger Theatre, became the new home of the Times Square Church. The address is 237 West 51st Street.

Given how much the characters smoked and drank in the movie, it's enough to make a viewer wonder how any of them survived to see the end of the war. Indeed, Conrad Veidt had a bad heart, and died in 1943, only 50 years old, 2 years and a few days short of V-E Day.

Humphrey Bogart also smoked himself to death, dying in 1957. He was preceded in death by Dooley Wilson, who died in 1953 from an undisclosed long-term illness. Sydney Greenstreet, who played secondary character Ferrari and co-starred with Bogart in several films including The Maltese Falcon, died in 1954. Peter Lorre, who played Ugarte, the man who gave Rick the letters of transit, and who was also in The Maltese Falcon, died in 1964, which pretty much buried a plan to film a live-action version of The Lord of the Rings, with Lorre playing Gollum.

Claude Rains lived until 1967, Ingrid Bergman until 1982, and Paul Heinreid made it to 1992. The last living actor from Casablanca was Madeleine Lebeau, who played Yvonne, who starts the film as Rick's girlfriend and ends it as the French refugee who had tearfully sung along with Laszlo's leading of "La Marseillaise." She left us on May 1, 2016.

November 26, 1942 was a Thursday. In America, it was Thanksgiving Day. What was actually going on in Casablanca at the time? Two weeks earlier, the Allies launched Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa -- in a manner of speaking, World War II's 1st "D-Day."

Among the Allied troops was the U.S. Third Army, commanded by General George S. Patton. Among those under his command was George Goldberg, who later changed his name to George Golden, so his wife wouldn't have to deal with the anti-Semitism that he faced. He hated war, but he hated the Nazis as much as they hated the Jews. So he found himself a non-combat role, but a critical one: He was an Army stenographer, vital in getting communications through.

He rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant, came home, and became a commercial photographer, a New York taxi driver, a husband, a father, and a grandfather -- my grandfather.

The NFL didn't play games on Thanksgiving during World War II. There were college games:

* Virginia Tech played, but not the University of Virginia: The Cavaliers had already finished their season the preceding Saturday. UVa and VT (or VPI, as Virginia Polytechnic Institute was then usually called ) did play on a holiday, but it was Halloween, and Tech won. On Thanksgiving, Tech played the Virginia Military Institute, beating them 20-6 at Victory Stadium in Roanoke.

* Elsewhere in Virginia, the College of William & Mary, ranked Number 19 beat the University of Richmond, 10-0 at City Stadium in Richmond.

* Wake Forest beat South Carolina, 33-14 on more or less neutral ground at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

* Louisiana State beat arch-rival Tulane, 18-6 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

* Missouri beat arch-rival Kansas, 42-13 at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Missouri.

* The University of Tulsa came in ranked Number 6, and beat Arkansas, 40-7 at Skelly Field in Tulsa. They rose to Number 4, before losing the Sugar Bowl to Tennessee.

* Number 18 Texas beat Texas A&M, 12-6 at Memorial Stadium in Austin.

* The University of Cincinnati beat arch-rival Miami University of Oxford, Ohio, 21-12 at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati. 

* In those days, Colorado had a major rival, but it wasn't Colorado State or Nebraska. It was the University of Denver. On Thanksgiving Day 1942, Colorado beat Denver, 31-6 at DU Stadium in Denver. That stadium hosted the DU program from 1926 until its suspension in 1960, and also hosted home games for the Air Force Academy from 1955 to 1961, and 1 home game for the Denver Broncos in their expansion season of 1960. It was torn down in 1971.

* Also in the Rocky Mountains, the University of Utah beats the University of Idaho, 13-7 at Ute Stadium in Salt Lake City.

However, most teams, including Rutgers, had already finished their seasons the preceding Saturday. Most of those that didn't played the following Saturday, including Notre Dame, who beat USC in Los Angeles; and Boston College, who blew a shot at the National Championship by getting clobbered by their arch-rivals in that era, Holy Cross. But that led to the cancellation of a victory party at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, which caught fire and killed nearly 500 people.

Baseball was out of season, and there was no NBA yet. But there was NHL action, with four of the "Original Six" in action. It's worth noting that Canada does have a holiday named Thanksgiving Day, but it's in mid-October. For that reason, the NHL's 2 Canadian teams, the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs, saw no reason to play on the day.

The Detroit Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. And the New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 2-1 at the Chicago Stadium. The Ranger goals are scored by Lynn Patrick, son of general manager Lester Patrick; and Clint Smith, who lived until 2009, thus making him the last survivor of not just this game, but of the Rangers' 1940 Stanley Cup winners.

How to Be a Devils Fan In Arizona -- 2017-18 Edition

Why would you want to go to Arizona? Well, if you're a New Jersey Devils fan, they're playing the Arizona Coyotes (formerly the Phoenix Coyotes, and before that the original Winnipeg Jets) this coming Saturday night.

You may not have many more chances to see the Coyotes in their current form, at their current home. With the Islanders now ensconced in Brooklyn, and the Atlanta Thrashers having become the new Winnipeg Jets, the 'Yotes are now the NHL most likely to move. How likely? They've been in danger of it since at least 2009, and their current arena lease runs only through 2018-19.

The current Phoenix hockey team is called the Coyotes, and the old one, playing there in the World Hockey Association from 1974 to 1977, was called the Roadrunners. Coyote and Roadrunner. "Meep meep!"

Before You Go. AZcentral.com, the website for Phoenix's largest newspaper, the Arizona Republic, is predicting low 70s for Saturday afternoon, and low 50s for the evening. So the legendary Arizona "dry heat" won't be an issue. Still, once you get on the plane, you'll want to ditch your Winter coat.

Arizona's infamous Daylight Savings Time issue has been settled: The State is on Mountain Time when New York is on Daylight Savings Time, and on Pacific Time when we're on Standard Time. This isn't the DST time of year. So you'll be on Mountain Time, 2 hours behind New Jersey and New York City. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

If you're thinking of making a side trip into Mexico, you should know that it's a 4-hour drive at the least. No public transportation. You'll need a passport, and you'll also need Mexican driving insurance, which you might be able to get at the Mexican consulate in Phoenix. In other words, it's not really worth the trip.

Tickets. The Coyotes averaged 13,094 fans per home game last season, and even that was a drop over the season before. It's only 76 percent of their arena's seating capacity. In each case, last season, only the Carolina Hurricanes averaged For comparison's sake, the Devils, much maligned for their attendance issues, averaged 14,567, 83 percent. Now who's "a Mickey Mouse operation on the ice," former Coyotes owner Wayne Gretzky?

Getting tickets will not be hard: You could probably show up at the arena box office 5 minutes before puck-drop, and get any ticket you can afford.

With the law of supply and demand, Coyotes tickets are among the cheapest in the NHL. Seats in the lower level, the 100 sections, are $120 between the goals and $76 behind them. In the upper level, the 200 sections, seats are $49 between the goals and $32 behind them.

Getting There. It's 2,458 miles from Times Square downtown Phoenix, and 2,444 miles from the Prudential Center in Newark to the Gila River Arena in Glendale. In other words, if you're going, you're flying.

You think I'm kidding? Even if you get someone to go with you, and you take turns, one drives while the other one sleeps, and you pack 2 days' worth of food, and you use the side of the Interstate as a toilet, and you don't get pulled over for speeding, you'll still need nearly 2 full days to get there. One way.

But, if you really, really want to... You'll need to get on the New Jersey Turnpike. Take it to Exit 14, to Interstate 78. Follow I-78 west all the way through New Jersey, to Phillipsburg, and across the Delaware River into Easton, Pennsylvania. Continue west on I-78 until reaching Harrisburg. There, you will merge onto I-81. Take Exit 52 to U.S. Route 11, which will soon take you onto I-76. This is the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the nation's first superhighway, opening in 1940.

The Turnpike will eventually be a joint run between I-76 and Interstate 70. Once that happens, you'll stay on I-70, all the way past Pittsburgh, across the little northern panhandle of West Virginia, and then across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, into Missouri.

At St. Louis, take Exit 40C onto Interstate 44 West, which will take you southwest across Missouri into Oklahoma. Upon reaching Oklahoma City, take Interstate 40 West, through the rest of the State, across the Texas Panhandle and New Mexico, into Arizona.  At Flagstaff, take Interstate 17 South, which will take you into Phoenix. Take Interstate 10 West to Exit 133B, which will lead you to State Route 101. Take Exit 6 to the arena/stadium complex

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and 15 minutes in New Jersey, 5 hours and 30 minutes in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in West Virginia, 3 hours and 45 minutes in Ohio, 2 hours and 45 minutes in Indiana, another 2 hours and 45 minutes in Illinois, 5 hours in Missouri, 6 hours in Oklahoma, 3 hours in Texas, 6 hours and 15 minutes in New Mexico, and 5 hours and 30 minutes in Arizona. That's about 42 hours. Counting rest stops, you're probably talking about 55 hours.

That's still faster than Greyhound, averaging around 68 hours, including a 1:45 bus-change in Richmond, a 1:15 stopover in Charlotte, an hour's bus-change in Atlanta, an hour's stopover in Birmingham, a 45-minute stopover in Jackson, Mississippi, an hour's stopover in Shreveport, a 1:30 bus-change in Dallas (that's right, changing buses 3 times each way), and a 1:15 stopover in El Paso.

It's $526 round-trip ($417 with advanced purchase). The station is at 2115 East Buckeye Road, adjacent to Sky Harbor International Airport. Number 13 bus to downtown.

To take Amtrak, you'd have to board the Crescent at 2:15 PM on Tuesday afternoon, arrive in New Orleans at 7:32 PM on Wednesday night, stay overnight in New Orleans (not a bad idea -- if you can afford it), leave on the Los Angeles-bound Sunset Limited at 9:00 AM on Thursday morning, and arrive at Maricopa at 8:52 PM on Friday night -- nearly 22 hours before puck-drop.


And you'd still have to get from Maricopa station, at 19427 N. John Wayne Pkwy., to downtown Phoenix, 35 miles to the north, as Amtrak closed Union Station in Phoenix a few years back. And if you can't rent a car, then you'll have to take a cab, because there's no train or bus from Maricopa to Phoenix. And, to get back, you'd have to get to Maricopa in time to catch the 5:40 AM Sunset Limited back to New Orleans on Sunday morning. Total fare: $737 -- not counting the taxis.
United Airlines can get you round-trip from Newark to Sky Harbor for under $700. 

Once In the City. While the Coyotes (as do MLB's Diamondbacks and the NFL's Cardinals, but not the NBA's Suns) have the State name as their geographic identifier -- apparently from a Native American word meaning "small spring" -- they play in Arizona's State capital, Phoenix.

Jack Swilling, a Confederate veteran who founded the place in 1867, accepted the suggestion of a fellow settler, an Englishman named Lord Duppa: Since it was on the site of a previous Indian civilization, it should be named Phoenix, for the mythical bird that rose from its own ashes. The city was incorporated in 1881, making it the youngest city in American major league sports.

The State House in Phoenix

Home to just 100,000 people in 1950, Phoenix saw huge growth in the 2nd half of the 20th Century: 440,000 by 1960, 580,000 by 1970, 800,000 by 1980, and it surpassed the 1 million mark in the early 1990s. It's 1.6 million now, with about 4.6 million people in the metropolitan area.

All this made it an expansion target. The NBA's expansion Suns arrived in 1968. The NFL's St. Louis Cardinals in 1988, changing their name from the Phoenix Cardinals to the Arizona Cardinals in 1993. The USFL's Arizona Wranglers played there in 1984, and became the Arizona Outlaws the following year. This was around the time that the Philadelphia Eagles nearly moved there due to owner Leonard Tose's fractured finances.

The MLB team that became the Diamondbacks was awarded in 1995, to begin play in 1998. And the NHL's 1st Winnipeg Jets became the Phoenix Coyotes in 1997, changing their name to the Arizona Coyotes in 2013. This was after the World Hockey Association had the Phoenix Roadrunners in the 1970s -- and, yes, I'm well aware of the cartoon connection: Roadrunners replaced by Coyotes. The WNBA's Phoenix Mercury also began play in 1997. Today, the Suns are the only Phoenix-area team to keep the city's name as their identifier, rather than the State's name.

The sales tax in Arizona is 5.6 percent, but it's 8.3 percent within the City of Phoenix. ZIP Codes for Arizona start with the digits 85 and 86, and the Area Codes are 602 (for Phoenix), 480 and 623 (for the suburbs). Arizona Public Service provides electricity and water. The Phoenix metropolitan area has a population that is about 58 percent white, 31 percent Hispanic, 5 percent black, 3 percent Asian, and 3 percent Native American. 

Central Avenue is the source street for east-west house numbers; oddly, the north-south streets are numbered Streets to the east, and numbered Avenues to the west. Washington Street divides addresses into north and south. State Route 101 forms a partial "outer beltway," while Interstates 10 (north and east) and 17 (south and west) form an "inner beltway." A single ride on Phoenix buses and Valley Metro Rail is $2.00, with an All-Day Pass a bargain at $4.00. 

A Valley Metro Rail train

Going In. The Glendale Sports & Entertainment District, in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, consists of The University of Phoenix Stadium, home to the Arizona Cardinals since 2006; and the Gila River Arena, home to the Coyotes since 2003. (There is an actual University of Phoenix, on the ground, not just on the Internet. But that's not here.) 

The complex is about 17 miles northwest of downtown Phoenix. The official address of the stadium is 1 Cardinals Drive, and that of the arena is 9400 W. Maryland Avenue. Number 8 bus from downtown to 7th & Glendale Avenues, then transfer to Number 70 bus, to Glendale and 95th Avenue, then walk down 95th. If you drive in, parking starts at $10.

New York Tri-State Area sports fans know the stadium as the site of Super Bowl XLII, where the Giants derailed the New England Patriots' bid for the NFL's first 19-0 season. The Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Eagles there in January 2009 to advance to Super Bowl XLIII. The Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers there in Super Bowl XLIX.

The stadium is also home to the Fiesta Bowl, and thus what has amounted to 3 National Championship Games: 2006-07, Florida over Ohio State; 2010-11, Auburn over Oregon; and 2015-16, Alabama over Clemson.

This past March, it became the 1st building in Arizona to host a Final Four, with North Carolina defeating Gonzaga in the Final. It's hosted 3 matches of the U.S. soccer team, most recently a 1-0 loss to Colombia in the 2016 Copa America.

Gila River Arena, under its former name Jobing.com Arena,

between University of Phoenix Stadium and the Westgate Mall

Formerly the Jobing.com Arena, named for an employment-service website, Gila River Casinos, run by local Native American tribes, now holds naming rights to the arena. The rink is laid out north-to-south. The Coyotes attack twice toward the south end.

Since the Suns' arena is downtown, the Coyotes' arena doesn't get many concert tours. It averages 14 non-hockey events a year -- so, not counting any Playoff games the Coyotes host, that's 55 dates a year, out of 365 days (366 in leap years such as 2016 or 2020). Not good. The stadium is a moneymaker, but the arena is not.

The reason the Coyotes left the downtown arena in the first place is because its retrofit meant losing about 2,000 seats for hockey, resulting in poor revenue, but they don't control this arena, either, and aren't making much money off it. Hence, they may still have to move. If they do, the Glendale Entertainment District might as well just move the arena's concert operations to the stadium and tear the arena down.

Last year, Arizona State University killed a deal for a new arena on ASU's Tempe campus, which would be home to the Coyotes and ASU's basketball team. The Coyotes would've picked up half the cost, and the taxpayers of the State of Arizona the other half.

As I write this, the Coyotes' long-term future in Arizona is once again in doubt. The Suns currently have no plans to leave their 1992-built home, now named the Talking Stick Resort Arena, so they won't be going halfsies with the Coyotes on a new arena.

Food. As a Southwestern city, you might expect Phoenix to have Mexican, Spanish, Western and Southwestern food themes. Which is the case. Tortilla Flats stands are on the Plaza Concourse outside of sections 102 and 230. Chuckwagon Grill, specializing in burgers, has locations on the Plaza Concourse outside of sections 109 and 212. Koko Pollo (chicken) is on the Plaza Concourse outside of section 204.

They also have Papa John's Pizza outside sections 115 and 219; the Yotes Head Pub at 103; Big City Reds Center Ice (hot dogs and chili) at 111, 122, 202 and 2014; Boars Head Deli at 110 and 120; Vienna Beef (hot dogs) at 114 and 217; AZ Cheesesteaks and Sausages at 119 and 227; Taste of Belgium (drinks including Stella Artois beer) at 122; End Cap Bars at 102, 110, 114 and 120; Dreyers Ice Cream (not Breyers) at 111 and 122; and Dippin Dots at 102, 110, 204 and 219.

Team History Displays. As one of the newer teams (due to their move), the Coyotes don't have a lot of history, and they don't hang banners for what they won as the original Winnipeg Jets. Their only championship banner is for their 2012 Pacific Division Championship, when they were still known as the Phoenix Coyotes, the name they used from 1996 to 2014. 

Yup, that's all they got.

This is the only division title the Jets/Coyotes franchise has won in the NHL. Their last one before that was in 1979, when they won the last World Hockey Association Championship. The 2011-12 season is also the only time they've reached the last 4 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. (The Jets won 3 WHA titles in 4 trips to the Finals.)

The Coyotes have 6 retired numbers, not counting the Number 99 retired through the entire NHL for Wayne Gretzky, who was the team's main owner. All of these, including Gretzky's, are displayed on the Coyotes Ring of Honor.

Center Keith Tkacuk, Number 7, and defenseman Teppo Numminen, Number 27, spanned both Winnipeg and Phoenix. Center Jeremy Roenick, Number 97, is the only one featured who played for the franchise only in Phoenix, never in Winnipeg. Left wing Bobby Hull, Number 9; center Dale Hawerchuk, Number 10; and right wing Thomas Steen, Number 25, all played for them only in Winnipeg, never in Phoenix.

Hull and Steen had their numbers retired in Winnipeg, but they were unretired in Phoenix. Still, those numbers have remained unworn, with 1 brief exception: Bobby's son, Brett Hull, briefly played for the Coyotes and wore 9

It has been announced that the 19 worn by Shane Doan will be retired, although a date hasn't been chosen. Doan played the last season in Winnipeg (making him the last active original Winnipeg Jet) and the 1st 21 in Arizona, and recently retired having played more NHL games without winning the Stanley Cup (or even reaching the Finals) than any other player, 1,595 (counting his 55 Playoff games).

Only 2 members of the Hockey Hall of Fame have ever played for the Coyotes since their move to Arizona: Mike Gartner, for 2 seasons, 1996-98; and Brett Hull, briefly, in 2005. (No, Roenick has not yet been elected.) Numminen has been elected to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Hall of Fame.

Bobby Hull received the Lester Patrick Trophy for contributions to hockey in America, and was named to The Hockey News' 100 Greatest Players in 1998. He was one of several of the old Winnipeg Jets to be named to the WHA All-Time Team: The others were Ulf and Kent Nilsson, Anders Hedberg, Joe Daley, Lars-Erik Sjoberg, Ernie Wakely, Ted Green and Terry Ruskowski. Robbie Ftorek, who played for the Phoenix Roadrunners, was also named to the WHA All-Time Team. Dave Silk and Dave Christian from the 1980 U.S. Olympic team played for the old Jets.

There is an Arizona Sports Hall of Fame, but the only person connected with the Coyotes who is in it is Jerry Colangelo, and he's in for what he did with the Suns and, secondarily, the Diamondbacks.

Stuff. The Coyotes' Den is located in the northwest corner of the arena, by Gate 3. You can find the usual team-themed stuff there. Perhaps, due to Arizona's Western heritage, you can find cowboy hats with the team's logo on them.

With hardly any history, there's no team highlight DVDs, and the only book I could find about the team was Laura Winters' entry for them in the NHL's Inside the NHL series, published last year.

During the Game. A November 19, 2014 article on The Hockey News' website ranked the NHL teams' fan bases, and listed the Coyotes' fans 30th in the League -- dead last: "In seats and on Twitter, Dogs' fan base is microscopic despite respectable play."

In other words, they're not nasty fans, or stupid fans; they simply don't have enough fans. Gee, maybe that could be explained by having an arena far from the center of the metropolitan area. Or by the metro area being, you know, in Arizona, a hot-weather city which never should have had an NHL team in the first place!

The Saturday game against the Devils will be Operation Santa Claus Night. Presumably, there will be something charity-involved with a Christmas theme.

Wearing Devils gear in Arizona will not endanger your safety. As a franchise only in their 20th season, the Coyotes don't really have a rivalry yet; and if they did, it wouldn't be with the Devils. For the most part, Arizona fans are okay, not making trouble for fans of teams playing the NFL Cardinals, NBA Suns or MLB's Diamondbacks, either. In fact, their biggest rivalry is intrastate: The University of Arizona vs. Arizona State University. It's a heated rivalry... but it's a dry heat.

Patrick Lauder has sung the National Anthem for the Coyotes since the return from the lockout in 2005, after having done so several times since the team's arrival in 1996. The goal song is "Howlin' for You" by the Black Keys.

The mascot is Howler the Coyote. He wears uniform Number 96, in honor of the team's 1996 arrival. He seems to think the Coyotes do have a rivalry, with the Anaheim Ducks. And he does kind of look like Wile E. Coyote, albeit not nearly as thin and with shorter ears.

Arizona fans have their own Southwestern spin on the Detroit tradition of throwing an octopus onto the ice: They throw rubber snakes. At least, I hope they're rubber, and not real.

After the Game. Be advised that outgoing traffic from this game may run into incoming traffic for the NFL Playoff game in which the Cardinals will host the Green Bay Packers.

Phoenix does have crime issues, but you should be safe as long as you stay downtown. What's more, the arena is in the suburbs. It's incredibly unlikely that Coyote fans will bother you, and the fact that the Devils aren't rivals to them helps.

This is a matinee, so the Westgate Mall, to the north across Coyotes Blvd., will be open after the game if you want to do some postgame dining or shopping. A McFadden's is outside the arena at the northwest corner, and a Saddle Ranch Chophouse at the northeast corner.

As for anything New York-friendly, the closest I can come at this time is a place called Tim Finnegan's, the local Jets fan hangout, but that's 11 miles north of downtown, at 9201 North 29th Avenue. It appears that the local football Giants fan club meets at the Blue Moose, at 7373 East Scottsdale Mall, 13 miles northeast of downtown. I've also heard that Loco Patron, at 1327 E. Chandler Blvd., is a Giants fan hangout, but that's 21 miles south. I've read that a Yankee Fan hangout is at LagerFields Sports Grill, at 12601 N. Paradise Village Pkwy. W., 14 miles northeast of downtown. Alas, I can find nothing Mets-specific in the area.

If you visit Phoenix during the European soccer season, as we are now in, the best "football pub" in Arizona is the George & Dragon Pub, which opens at 7:00 AM on matchdays. 4240 N. Central Avenue, about 3 miles north of downtown. Bus 13 to Buckeye Road & Central Avenue, then transfer to Bus ZERO to Farrington Lane. Unless you're a Liverpool fan, or you'd prefer to stay downtown, in which case you can go to the Rose and Crown, at 628 E. Adams Street, 2 blocks north of the ballpark.

Sidelights. Phoenix's sports history is relatively brief, and not very successful. But there are some notable locations.

* Chase Field and Talking Stick Resort Arena. The capital of Arizona sports is 2 buildings separated by 2 blocks and the Jefferson Street Garage, which provides parking for both.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have played since their 1998 inception at Chase Field, a retractable-roof stadium, originally named Bank One Ballpark, and having that name during what remains the Diamondbacks' only World Series thus far, 2001. It looks like a big airplane hangar, without much atmosphere. True, there is that pool in the right-center-field corner... but what's a pool doing at a ballpark?

Major League Baseball is now concerned enough about developments at Chase Field that it might force the Diamondbacks to move.

The Talking Stick Resort Arena, previously known as the US Airways Center and the AmericaWest Arena for a previous airline, it is 2 blocks west of Chase Field, at 2nd & Jefferson. The Suns have played here since 1992, and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury since 1997. The Coyotes played here from 1996 to 2003.

Chase Field, with Talking Stick Resort Arena

behind it and to the left

The arena's address is 201 E. Jefferson Street, and the ballpark's is 401 E. Jefferson Street. Both buildings can be reached on Metro Light Rail via the Jefferson Street & 3rd Street station.

* Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The Grand Canyon State's 1st home to big-league sports, opening in 1965, was home to the Suns from their 1968 arrival until 1992, and to the World Hockey Association's Phoenix Roadrunners from 1974 to 1977.

Elvis Presley sang at the Coliseum on September 9, 1970, and again on April 22, 1973. Early in his career, on June 9, 1956, he sang at a grandstand at the adjoining Arizona State Fairgrounds. The next day, he sang at the Rodeo Grounds in Tucson. He also sang at the Tucson Community Center on November 9, 1972 and June 1, 1976. (While individual ex-Beatles have performed in Arizona, the band as a whole did not do so on any of their 3 North American tours.)

The Coliseum still stands, and is part of the State Fairgrounds. 1826 W. McDowell Road. Northwest of downtown. Number 15 bus to 15th & McDowell, then 3 blocks west.

* Phoenix Municipal Stadium. This ballpark was home to the Phoenix Giants/Firebirds from its opening in 1964 until 1991, and is the current spring training home of the Oakland Athletics, the Diamondbacks' Rookie League team, and Arizona's State high school baseball championship. 5999 E. Van Buren Street. East of downtown, take the Light Rail to Priest Drive/Washington station, then a short walk up Priest.

* Scottsdale Stadium. This stadium was home to the Firebirds in their last years, 1992 to 1997. Its seating capacity of 12,000, 4,000 more than Phoenix Municipal, was meant to showcase the Phoenix area as a potential major league market. It's the San Francisco Giants' spring training site, and replaced a previous stadium on the site that dated to 1956, used as a spring training home for the Giants, A's, Red Sox, Orioles and Cubs -- sometimes all at the same time.

Because it was the Cubs' spring training home, thus leading to Phoenix becoming "Chicago's Miami," where retirees from the city tend to go (paging Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post & ESPN's Pardon the Interruption & NBA coverage), it was where former Cub catcher Randy Hundley hosted the very first baseball fantasy camp. As Met fans, you might remember Randy's furious reaction to Tommie Agee scoring on a controversial umpiring call at home plate at Shea in September 1969. You might also remember Randy's son, former Met catcher Todd Hundley.

7408 E. Osborn Road, at Drinkwater Boulevard. Northeast of downtown. Light Rail to Veterans Way/College station, then transfer to Number 72 bus to Osborn, then walk 2 blocks east.

* Arizona State University. The University of Arizona is 114 miles away in Tuscon, but ASU is just a 24-minute Light Rail ride from downtown. The station is at 5th Street & Veterans Way, and is 2 blocks away from Sun Devil Stadium and the Wells Fargo Arena, home to their football and basketball teams, respectively.

Sun Devil Stadium was built in 1958, and ASU still plays there rather than move to the larger, more modern (but well off-campus) University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cardinals played there from 1988 to 2005, and the Fiesta Bowl was held there from 1971 to 2006. This included what amounted to the National Championship Game 5 times: 1986-87, Penn State over Miami; 1988-89, Notre Dame over West Virginia; 1995-96, Nebraska over Florida; 1998-99, Tennessee over Florida State; and 2002-03, Ohio State over Miami.

The Dallas Cowboys treated it as a second home field when they played the Cardinals (mainly because there always seemed to be more Cowboy fans there), and won Super Bowl XXX there, when the world learned A) it was possible for the Pittsburgh Steelers to lose a Super Bowl, and B) Terry Bradshaw was smart compared to Neil O'Donnell. It also hosted 2 U.S. soccer team matches in the 1990s.

The Wells Fargo Arena was previously known as the ASU Activity Center. Elvis sang there on March 23, 1977.

Packard Stadium, opened in 1974, is home to the ASU baseball program, one of the most successful college baseball teams, east of the stadium and arena, at Rural Road and Rio Salado Parkway. The Sun Devils have won 5 National Championships, most recently in 1981. Their legends include Reggie Jackson, Barry Bonds, and current stars Dustin Pedroia and Andre Ethier. Notable ASU and Met alumni include Gary Gentry, Duffy Dyer, Lenny Randle, Craig Swan, Hubie Brooks, Paul Lo Duca and Ike Davis.

ASU’s Gammage Auditorium, at the other end of the campus, hosted one of the 2004 Presidential Debates between George W. Bush and John Kerry. 1200 S. Forest Avenue.

The US Airways Center, Wells Fargo Arena, University of Phoenix Stadium, and the University of Arizona's McKale Center have all hosted NCAA basketball tournament games. UA has been in the Final Four in 1988, 1994, 1997 and 2001, winning it all in 1997; but ASU has never gotten any closer than the Sweet 16, in 1995.

The highest-ranking pro soccer team in Arizona is Phoenix Rising FC, in the United Soccer League, our 2nd division. They play at the rather unimaginatively-named Phoenix Rising FC Soccer Complex, which seats 6,200. 751 N. McClintock Drive, in Scottsdale, 10 miles east of downtown Phoenix. It takes 4 buses over 2 hours to get there, so if you don't have a car, forget it. 


Presuming Major League Soccer's current expansion wave passes Phoenix by, the closest MLS teams are the 2 in Los Angeles, 375 (LAFC) and 376 (LA Galaxy) miles to the west, respectively. The San Jose Earthquakes and Real Salt Lake are considerably further away.

* Arizona Science Center. Phoenix is not a big museum center. And while there have been Native Americans living in Phoenix for thousands of years, and Spaniards/Mexicans for hundreds, its Anglo history is rather short. No Arizonan has ever become President (although Senators Barry Goldwater and John McCain got nominated), so there's no Presidential Library or Museum. And it doesn't help history buffs that the city only goes back to 1867, and Statehood was gained only in 1912. But the Science Center is at 4th & Washington, just a block from the ballpark. And Arizona State has a renowned Art Museum.

The tallest building in Phoenix, and in all of Arizona, is the Chase Tower, bounded by Central Avenue and Van Buren, 1st and Monroe Streets. That it's only 483 feet, and that no taller building has been built in the city since it opened in 1972, says something about this city, but I'm not sure what. But the city seems to be intent on growing outward, not upward.

Television shows set in Phoenix, or anywhere in Arizona, are few and far between. The High Chaparral, another Western created by Bonanza creator David Dortort, ran on NBC from 1967 to 1971, and is fondly remembered by some. Medium was set in the Maricopa County District Attorney's office in Phoenix.

But the best-remembered show is Alice, starring Linda Lavin as one of several waitresses at fictional Mel's Diner, running on CBS from 1976 to 1985. Although the show was taped in Hollywood (Burbank, actually), that once-famous "14-ounce coffee cup" sign is still used outside a real working diner in Phoenix. It was Lester's, until the owner agreed to change the name to "Mel's Diner" for the publicity. Today, it's Pat's Family Diner, at 1747 NW Grand Avenue, 2 miles northwest of downtown. Number 15 bus to 15th Avenue & Pierce Street, and then walk one block east to Grand, Pierce, and 12th. There are also still-in-business diners in Ohio and Florida that use the same sign design. "Pickup!"

Movies set in modern-day Arizona usually show the Grand Canyon or the Hoover Dam. Notable on this list is Thelma & Louise, in which Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon drive a 1966 Ford Thunderbird into the Canyon rather than be captured by the FBI, enacting a distaff version of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. National Lampoon's Vacation and Natural Born Killers also used Arizona as a backdrop.

The vast majority of movies set in Arizona have been Westerns, including the 1957 and 2007 versions of 3:10 to Yuma, the 1950 film Broken Arrow (not the later John Travolta film of the same title), Fort Apache (not the later Paul Newman film set in The Bronx), Paul Newman's Hombre, Johnny Guitar, A Million Ways to Die In the West, No Name On the Bullet, and all the films based on the 1881 Earps vs. Clantons gunfight, including My Darling Clementine in 1946, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1957, Tombstone in 1993 and Wyatt Earp in 1994. While not a Western, Revenge of the Nerds was filmed at the University of Arizona, in Tucson.

If you're a Western buff, and you want to see the site of the legendary gunfight, the official address is 326 East Allen Street, Tombstone, AZ 85638. Reenactments are held daily. Be advised, though, that it's 184 miles southeast of downtown Phoenix, a 3-hour drive, and ain't no Greyhound or Amtrak service, stranger. It's also just 50 miles from the Mexican border.

And the other 2 things in Arizona that everybody talks about? The Grand Canyon Skywalk is 262 miles northwest of downtown Phoenix, and Hoover Dam 269 miles. They're 96 road miles apart, but about half that as the crow flies. 

*

If you go to Phoenix to see the Devils play the Coyotes, you won't be subjected to Arizona's usual intense heat, and you can probably see a hockey game relatively cheap. Have fun!

How to Be a Devils Fan in Colorado -- 2017-18 Edition

Next Friday, the New Jersey Devils visit Denver to play the Colorado Avalanche.

Before You Go. The Denver Post is predicting high 50s for Friday afternoon, and mid-30s for the evening. Although the mountain air leads to a lot of snow, no precipitation of any kind is forecast for this week. Still, keep the thin air in mind, and don't exert yourself too much.

Denver is in the Mountain Time Zone, so you'll be 2 hours behind New York time. And there's a reason it's called the Mile High City: The elevation means the air will be thinner. Although the Rocky Mountain region is renowned for outdoor recreation, if you're not used to it, try not to exert yourself too much. Cheering at a sporting event shouldn't bother you too much, but even if the weather is good, don't go rock-climbing or any other such activity unless you've done it before and know what you're doing.

Tickets. When the Avs arrived in 1995, and immediately won the Stanley Cup, the Rocky Mountain region went nuts, having never before won a World Championship in any sport. They stayed good for 10 years, and attendance remained great. Then they fell apart, and people saw how well Colorado fans supported a non-winner. They've made the Playoffs just once in the last 7 seasons, and average home attendance last season was down to 14,835 per game -- not terrible, but only 82 percent of capacity. So tickets will almost certainly be available.

Tickets in the lower level are $230 between the goals and $109 behind them. In the upper level, they're cheap: $35 between and just $21 behind.

Getting There. It's 1,779 miles from Times Square in New York to the Denver plaza that contains the State House and the City-County complex, and 1,767 miles from Prudential Center to the Pepsi Center. You're probably thinking that you should be flying.

The good news: As was its predecessor, Stapleton International Airport (named for 1923-47 Mayor Benjamin F. Stapleton), the new Denver International Airport is a major change-planes-here spot for going to the West Coast and Las Vegas, meaning lots of nonstop flights from New York to Denver are possible.

The bad news: Flying to Denver nonstop, on this occasion, will be expensive, over $1,100 round-trip on United Airlines. It could be about half that on American Airlines, but you'd have to change planes in Chicago each way.

Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited leaves Penn Station at 3:40 PM Tuesday, arrives at Union Station in Chicago at 9:45 AM Wednesday (that's Central Time). The California Zephyr leaves Chicago at 2:00 PM Wednesday and arrives at Denver's Union Station at 7:15 AM (Mountain Time) Thursday. The return trip would leave Denver at 7:10 PM Friday, arrive in Chicago at 2:50 PM Saturday, leave Chicago at 9:30 PM Saturday, and get back to New York at 6:23 PM Sunday. The round-trip fare is $519.

Conveniently, Union Station is at 1700 Wynkoop Street at 17th Street, just 3 blocks from Coors Field. The front of the building is topped by a clock, framed by an old sign saying UNION STATION on top and TRAVEL by TRAIN on the bottom.

Greyhound allows you to leave Port Authority Bus Terminal at 4:00 PM Tuesday, and arrive at Denver at 10:50 AM on Thursday, a trip of just under 45 hours, without having to change buses. That 44:50 does, however, include layovers of 40 minutes in Philadelphia, an hour and a half in Pittsburgh, an hour in Columbus, an hour in Indianapolis, 2 hours in St. Louis, and half an hour in Salina, Kansas; plus half-hour meal stops in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Kansas. Round-trip fare is $406, but you can get it for $336 on advanced-purchase. You can get a bus back at 7:20 PM Friday and be back in New York at 3:00 PM Sunsday. The Denver Bus Center is at 1055 19th Street.

If you actually think it's worth it to drive, get someone to go with you, so you'll have someone to talk to, and one of you can drive while the other sleeps. You'll be taking Interstate 80 most of the way, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, before taking Interstate 76 from Nebraska to Colorado, and then Interstate 25 into Denver. (An alternate route: Take the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Turnpikes to Interstate 70 and then I-70 through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Colorado into downtown Denver. It won't save you an appreciable amount of time over the I-80 route, though.)

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Pennsylvania, 4 hours in Ohio, 2 hours and 30 minutes in Indiana, 2 hours and 45 minutes in Illinois, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Iowa, 6 hours in Nebraska, and 3 hours and 15 minutes in Colorado. Including rest stops, and accounting for traffic (you'll be bypassing Cleveland and Chicago, unless that's where you want to make rest stops), we're talking about a 40-hour trip.

Even if you're only going for one game, no matter how you got there, get a hotel and spend a night. You'll be exhausted otherwise. Trust me, I know: Trains and buses are not good ways to get sleep.

Once In the City. Founded in 1858 as a gold rush city, and named for James W. Denver, then Governor of the Kansas Territory, from which Colorado was separated, Denver is a State capital and city of 700,000 people, in a metro area of 3.4 million -- roughly the population of Brooklyn and Staten Island combined. It's easily the biggest city in, and thus the unofficial cultural capital of, the Rocky Mountain region.

The State House

Broadway is the main north-south drag, separating East addresses from West. But the northwestern quadrant of the street grid is at roughly a 45-degree angle from the rest of the city, and this area includes the central business district, Union Station and the ballpark.

The sales tax in the State of Colorado is 2.9 percent, however, the City of Denver adds a 3.62 percent sales tax, for a total of 6.52 percent. ZIP Codes in Colorado start with the digits 80 and 81, with the Denver area running from 800 to 810. The Area Code for Denver is 303, with 720 overlaid. Xcel Energy runs the electricity for the Denver area. The city is about 52 percent white, 32 percent Hispanic, 10 percent black, and 3 percent Asian.

The Denver Post is a good paper, but don't bother looking for the Rocky Mountain News: It went out of business in 2009. State Route 470 serves as Denver's "beltway." Bus and light rail service in Denver is run by the Regional Transportation District (RTD), and goes for $2.25 for a single ride, and $6.75 for a DayPass. Denver switched from tokens to farecards in 2013.

Don't worry, the weather isn't forecast to look like this during your visit.

I chose this picture for the look of the train, not for the snow and wet streets.

Going In. The Pepsi Center -- the soda company has always had naming rights on the arena since it opened -- is across Cherry Creek from downtown, about 2 miles northwest of City Hall. The intersection is 11th Street & Auraria Parkway, but the mailing address is 1000 Chopper Circle, in honor of Robert "Chopper" Travaglini, the beloved former trainer (and amateur sports psychologist) of the NBA's Nuggets, who share the arena. It is 1 of 10 current arenas that is home to both an NBA team and an NHL team.

Chopper was actually a Jersey Boy, albeit from Woodbury on the Philly side. He died in 1999, age 77, right before the new arena opened. Chopper Circle is an extension of Wewatta Street.

Pepsi Center/Elitch Gardens station on the RTD light rail. If you're coming in that way, you'll probably enter from the west gate, the Grand Atrium. If you're driving, parking starts at just $5.00. The rink is laid out east-to-west, and the Avs attack twice toward the east end.

In addition to hosting the Avs and the Nugs, the Pepsi Center has also hosted NCAA Tournament basketball games, the 2008 edition of NCAA's hockey "Frozen Four," and the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Food. Being a "Wild West" city, you might expect Denver to have Western-themed stands with "real American food" at its arena. Being in a State with a Spanish name, in a land that used to belong to Mexico, you might also expect to have Mexican food. And you would be right on both counts.

Unfortunately, the team and arena websites don't include charts showing where the concession stands are. The arena website does mention specialty restaurants:

The Shock Top Lodge is a restaurant that seats 325 guests, 250 in the restaurant and 75 at the bar, and is open to all ticketholders.

The Land Rover Denver Club has seating for 125 and can accommodate over 300 in a lounge-like environment. Guests can enjoy a Colorado craft beer or specialty drink coupled with a chef-inspired dish without missing any of the action in the arena while watching on one of the 20 HD TVs positioned throughout the space. 

The Peak Pub House seats 236 patrons, and is available to suite holders, KeyBank Club Level ticket holders, the first row of rinkside, all courtside seat holders, and all patrons with 5 minutes remaining in the game.

Team History Displays. The Nuggets' banners are at the east end of the arena, and the Avalanche's banners at the west end. There are also banners for the Arena Football League's Colorado Mammoths -- which, like the Avs, the Nugs, MLS' Colorado Rapids, the NFL's St. Louis (for the moment) Rams, and English soccer's Arsenal Football Club, is owned by Walton of Walmart infamy in-law Stan Kroenke.

Despite the Avs' brief history, they have plenty of banners: 9 for Division titles in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2014; 2 for President's Trophies in 1997 and 2001; 2 for Western Conference Championships in 1996 and 2001; and 2 for Stanley Cups in 1996 and 2001.

There is no notation for what the franchise won as the Quebec Nordiques, and, since the original, hockey version of the Colorado Rockies made the Playoffs just once in 6 seasons before moving to become the Devils, there is nothing to hang for them anyway.

They've also retired 5 uniform numbers. From the 1996 Stanley Cup winners, they've retired 19 for center Joe Sakic, 21 for center Peter Forsberg, 33 for goaltender Patrick Roy (now the team's head coach) and 52 for defenseman Adam Foote.

All of these players were still there for the 2001 Stanley Cup win (although Forsberg was injured for the Playoffs). And, in case the 2,001 times that Gary Thorne and ABC Sports mentioned it wasn't enough to jam it into your memory for all time, the Avs had added Number 77, defenseman Ray Bourque. (Interestingly enough, both times the Avs won the Cup, the Devils won it the season before. But this pattern did not hold in 2003-04.) By that point, they had also added right wing Milan Hejduk, whose Number 23 will be retired on January 6.

Prior to the team's move to become the Avalanche, the Quebec Nordiques had retired 3 for defenseman Jean-Claude Tremblay, 8 for left wing Marc Tardif, 16 for left wing Michel Goulet, and 26 for center Peter Stastny (who, of course, also played for the Devils). Each of these numbers was returned to circulation, and Peter's son Paul Stastny, now with the St. Louis Blues, wore his father's Number 26 with the Avs.

Last season, the Avs named a 20th Anniversary Team. From the 1996 Cup team, they chose Roy, Sakic, Forsberg, Foote, defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh, left wing Valeri Kamensky, right wings Adam Deadmarsh and our old friend Claude Lemieux, and center Stephane Yelle.

From the 2001 Cup team, they chose Roy, Sakic, Forsberg, Foote, Bourque, Hejduk, Yelle, defenseman Rob Blake, left wing Alex Tanguay, and centers Stephen Reinprecht and Chris Drury.

From after, but not including, 2001, they've chosen goalie Semyon Varlamov, defensemen John-Michael Liles and Erik Johnson, left wing Gabriel Landeskog, and centers Paul Stastny and Matt Duchene.

Yay, Claudie!

Foote, Forsberg, Roy, Sakic, Hejduk and former team president and general manager Pierre Lacroix have been elected to the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, which is located at the new Broncos' stadium. Bourque and Claudie have not. Stastny and Sundin from the Quebec years, and Forsberg and Kamensky from both cities, have been elected to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Hall of Fame. Bourque has received the Lester Patrick Trophy for contributions to hockey in America.

Sakic, Roy and Bourque -- the latter, still with the Boston Bruins at the time -- were named to The Hockey News' 100 Greatest Players in 1998. From the Nordiques, Tremblay, Tardif, Goulet, Christian Bordeleau, Rich LeDuc, Serge Bernie, and Richard Brodeur (no relation to Marty) were named to the WHA All-Time Team. Bill Baker and Steve Janaszak of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team played for the Rockies before they became the Devils. Earlier this year, Sakic, Roy, Forsberg and Bourque were named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players.

Stuff. Altitude Athletics is located in the Grand Atrium at the arena's west end. It sells Avs, Nugs, Rapids and Mammoths merchandise -- but not the Rams or The Arsenal, as these teams are located nowhere near Denver. They may sell cowboy hats with team logos on them, to tie in with the State's Western heritage.

There are books available about the team, but, being Devils fans, you won't want to be reminded of how they plowed into the Meadowlands, off Exit 16W (as in 16 wins to get through the Playoffs), and took the Cup away from us. That story is told in the Denver Post's official retrospective, Mission 16W: Colorado Avalanche: 2000-'01 Stanley Cup Champions. Of course, Bourque is in the center of the cover, holding up the Cup, flanked by photos of Sakic and Roy.

From Claude Lemieux's unacceptable hit on Kris Draper in Game 6 of the 1996 Western Conference Finals, Detroit Red Wings fans have hated the Avs in general and Claudie in particular. They met in 5 Playoff series in 7 seasons from 1996 to 2002, and mixed in there was a regular-season nasty brawl in Detroit on March 26, 1997, in which Claudie was targeted by the Wings. Denver Post hockey writer Adrian Dater and then-Wings coach Scotty Bowman have collaborated on Blood Feud: Detroit Red Wings v. Colorado Avalanche: The Inside Story of Pro Sports' Nastiest and Best Rivalry. 

Of course, the Wings' real arch-rivals are the Chicago Blackhawks, as the Hawks' 2010s renaissance has reminded everyone. Wings-Avs was like Mets-Braves, Knicks-Heat and 49ers-Cowboys, in that it was only a rivalry for a brief time, and no longer really matters, especially now that the Wings have been moved to the Eastern Conference. It's also worth noting that Claudie had a nasty reputation even before 1996. Indeed, when he was introduced before Game 1 of the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals in Detroit, no Devils player was booed harder.

The Avs didn't release a 20th Anniversary DVD, but highlight packages for the 1996 and 2001 Cup wins are be available. The '96 version is titled The Colorado Avalanche Landslide; the '01, Mission Accomplished (again, playing on the theme of Bourque's 22-year quest for the Cup, failing 20 times with the Boston Bruins and once for the Avs before finally doing it).

During the Game. A November 19, 2014 article on The Hockey News' website ranked the NHL teams' fan bases, and listed the Avalanche's fans 27th, ahead of only Columbus, Dallas and Arizona: "Long way from 1990s heyday. Avs 3rd in standings, 23rd in attendance last year." Meaning the 2013-14 season. But in 2015-16, they were 19th, with their arena averaging 97 percent full. Maybe they should rethink their "metrics" for deciding these things.

Coloradans love their sports, but they're not known as antagonistic. Although the Jets came within a half of derailing a Bronco Super Bowl in 1999 (1998 season), and the Devils came within a game of short-circuiting their Stanley Cup run in 2001, the people of the Centennial State don't have an ingrained hatred of New Yorkers. As long as you don't wear Kansas City Chiefs or Oakland Raiders gear, you'll probably be completely safe. (But, as always, watch out for obnoxious drunks, who know no State Lines.)

Jake Schroeder is the Avs' regular National Anthem singer. The Avs take the ice to "Scalped," an old surf-rock instrumental by Dick Dale. (Shouldn't the L.A. Kings use a surf-rock song? I guess nobody ever thought to invent "ski-rock.") Their goal song is "Born to Rage" by the Swedish DJ duo Dada Life. (From ABBA to Ace of Base to Dada Life, Sweden has never learned how to make good music.) If the Avs win, they'll play "Takin' Care of Business" by Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

Sometimes, the Avs will wear jerseys with "COLORADO" in descending diagonal block letters, much like the hated Rangers. This is an attempt to show how they might have dressed had they existed in the old days, not a "throwback" uniform, but a "fauxback."

Despite sometimes featuring a shoulder patch of a Sasquatch/Bigfoot footprint, the Avs' mascot is Bernie the St. Bernard, emblematic of rescuing people trapped in alpine avalanches. He even has a keg around his neck, although from a distance, Avs fans, trained on Broncomania, could easily mistake it for a football. His theme song is "Atomic Dog," by Plainfield, New Jersey native George Clinton and his "P-Funk Empire." His uniform number is a bone, although it could, from a distance, appear to be a Number 1.

After the Game. Denver has had crime issues, and just 3 blocks from Coors Field is Larimer Street, immortalized as a dingy, bohemian-tinged, hobo-strewn street in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road. But that scene was written in 1947. The Pepsi Center is, essentially, an island in a sea of parking. LoDo (Lower Downtown) has become, with the building of Coors Field and the revitalization of Union Station, a sort of mountain Wrigleyville, and thus the go-to area for Denver nightlife. So you'll probably be safe.

Across Chopper Circle from the arena is Brooklyn's at the Pepsi Center, a typical sports bar. If you want something a little more substantial, a Panda Express is on the other side of the arena, across Elitch Circle.

LoDo is loaded with bars that will be open after the game, including Scruffy Murphy's at Larimer & 20th, and an outlet of the Fado Irish Pub chain at Wynkoop & 19th. But the only baseball-named place I can find anywhere near Coors is Sandlot Brewery, at 22nd & Blake, outside the park's right-field corner. Behind home plate, at 1930 Blake Street, is The Sports Column, hailed by a recent Thrillist article as the best sports bar in the State of Colorado.

Perhaps the most famous sports-themed restaurant near Denver is Elway's Cherry Creek, a steakhouse at 2500 E. 1st Avenue in the southern suburb of Cherry Creek. Bus 83L. It's owned by the same guy who owns John Elway Chevrolet in another southern suburb, Englewood.

About a mile southeast of Coors Field, at 538 E. 17th Avenue in the Uptown neighborhood (not sure why a southern, rather than northern, neighborhood is called "Uptown"), is The Tavern, home of the local New York Giants fan club. Jet fans gather at Chopper's Sports Grill, possibly named for Chopper Travaglini, at 80 S. Madison Street at Bayaud Avenue, 3 miles southeast of downtown, in the Pulaski Park neighborhood. Bus 83, then a mile's walk.

If your visit to Denver is during the European soccer season (which is now winding down), your best bet for watching your favorite club is at The Three Lions (named for the crest on the jerseys of the England national team), 2239 E. Colfax Avenue, about 2 miles east of downtown. Number 15 bus.

Sidelights. Denver is a fantastic city, and a good sports city, with much to look for. On February 3, 2017, Thrillist made a list ranking the 30 NFL cities (New York and Los Angeles each having 2 teams), and Denver came in 8th, in the top 1/3rd. They said:

Ah, Denver! Breathe in that fresh mountain air with just a hint of cannabis and green chile. Drink in the hoppy splendor of a craft beer scene that was bustling back when everyone still called them "microbreweries." Tolerate the alarmingly in-shape bro who stuck around after four years at Boulder to work as a part-time ski instructor and won't stop talking to you about fourteeners. Denver often gets championed for all the fantastic stuff to do right outside the city, what with the skiing and the hiking and the Red Rocks, but that does a disservice to all the good times to be had in Denver proper. The fact that said times can be had with herbal enhancement with nary a legal concern is just a bonus. 

UPDATE: On November 30, 2018, Thrillist published a list of "America's 25 Most Fun Cities," and Denver came in 13th. On February 12, 2019, they published an article calling Denver "America's Must-Visit City for 2019."

Sports Authority Field at Mile High, formerly Invesco Field at Mile High, has been the home of the NFL's Denver Broncos since 2001. Everyone just gives it the same name as the old facility: "Mile High Stadium." It includes the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, and the Broncos' Ring of Fame.

It was built on the site of the McNichols Sports Arena, home to the NBA's Denver Nuggets from 1975 to 1999, the NHL's Colorado Avalanche from 1995 to 1999, and the 1st major league team called the Colorado Rockies, the NHL team that became the Devils, from 1976 to 1982. It hosted the NCAA Final Four in 1990, with UNLV (the University of Nevada at Las Vegas) clobbering Duke. (The University of Colorado, in Boulder, made the Final Four in 1942 and 1955, although it wasn't yet called the Final Four.  No other Colorado-based school has made it, and none has won a National Championship -- not in basketball, anyway.)

The Rockies they're wishing good luck are the baseball team,

not the hockey team that used to play there and became the Devils.

When the time came to play the final concert at McNichols, the act that played the first concert there was brought back: ZZ Top. This fact was mentioned on an ABC Monday Night Football broadcast, leading Dan Dierdorf to note the alphabetic distinction of the long red-bearded men, and say, "The first one should have been ABBA." Which would have been possible, as they were nearly big in the U.S. at the time. However, the fact that the arena only lasted 24 years, making it not that hard for the act that played the first concert there to also play the last, says something about America's disposable culture.

The old stadium was just to the north of the new stadium/old arena. The current address is Mile High Stadium Circle, but the old intersection was W. 20th Avenue & Bryant St. (2755 W. 17th Avenue was the mailing address.) It was built in 1948 as Bears Stadium, an 18,000-seat ballpark.

When the American Football League was founded in 1960, it was expanded to 34,000 seats with the addition of outfield seating. The name was changed to Mile High Stadium in 1966, and by 1968 much of the stadium was triple-decked and seated 51,706. In 1977 – just in time for the Broncos to make their first Super Bowl run and start "Broncomania" – the former baseball park was transformed into a 76,273-seat horseshoe, whose east stands could be moved in to conform to the shape of a football field, or out to allow enough room for a regulation baseball field. The old-time ballpark had become, by the standards of the time, a modern football stadium.

The biggest complaint when the Rockies arrived in 1993 wasn't the thin air, or the condition of the stadium (despite its age, it was not falling apart), but the positioning of the lights: Great for football fans, but terrible for outfielders tracking fly balls. But it was only meant to be a temporary ballpark for the Rockies, as a condition for Denver getting a team was a baseball-only stadium. What really led to the replacement of Mile High Stadium, and its demolition in 2002, was greed: The Broncos' desire for luxury-box revenue.

At Bears/Mile High Stadium, the Broncos won AFC Championships in 1977, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1997 and 1998, winning the Super Bowl in the last 2 years after losing the first 4 in blowouts.  (They've now won an AFC title at the new stadium, but not a Super Bowl.) The Denver Bears won Pennants while playing there in 1957 (as a Yankee farm team), 1971, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1983 and 1991 (winning the last one under the Denver Zephyrs name).

The U.S. national soccer team played a pair of games at Mile High Stadium in the 1990s, and beat Mexico at the new stadium in 2002 (the only game they've played there so far). While the 2008 Democratic Convention was held at the Pepsi Center, Senator Barack Obama gave his nomination acceptance speech outdoors in front of 80,000 people at New Mile High Stadium.

The old stadium also hosted the Denver Gold of the United States Football League, the 1983 USFL Championship Game, the Colorado Caribous of the original North American Soccer League, and the Rapids from their 1996 inception until 2001 -- in fact, they played the stadium's last event, before playing at the new stadium from 2002 to 2006. The U.S. national soccer team played a pair of games at Mile High Stadium in the 1990s, and beat Mexico at the new stadium in 2002 (the only game they've played there so far).

(UPDATE: It has been selected by the U.S. Soccer Federation as a finalist to be one of the host venues for the 2026 World Cup.)

While the 2008 Democratic Convention was held at the Pepsi Center, Senator Barack Obama gave his nomination acceptance speech outdoors in front of 80,000 people at New Mile High Stadium.

The Red Lion Hotel Denver and the Skybox Grill & Sports Bar are now on the site of the old stadium. At McNichols, the Nuggets reached the ABA Finals in 1976, and the Avalanche won the 1996 Stanley Cup (albeit clinching in Miami). The Denver Dynamite won the 1st ArenaBowl in 1987, and again in 1989, 1990 and 1991, before finances forced them to fold anyway. Elvis Presley sang at McNichols on April 23, 1976.

The complex that included Mile High Stadium and the McNichols Arena was supposed to be the centerpiece of the 1976 Winter Olympics. But in a 1972 referendum, Colorado voters rejected funding that would have built more facilities, and, in what remains the only example of this ever happening, Winter or Summer, a city withdrew as host for an Olympic Games. They were awarded, instead, to Innsbruck, Austria, which already had the facilities in place from hosting them in 1964.

The new stadium, and the site of the old stadium and arena, are at Mile High Station on the light rail C-Line and E-Line.

Coors Field has been home to the Rockies since it opened in 1995. In February 2016, it hosted 2 hockey games. The University of Denver beat arch-rival Colorado College 4-1 in a game billed as the Battle On Blake. And as part of the NHL Stadium Series, the Colorado Avalanche hosted the Detroit Red Wings, perhaps perversely celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the birth of their brief but nasty rivalry. The Wings won 5-3.

2001 Blake Street (hence the team's nickname, the Blake Street Bombers) at 20th Street, 3 blocks from Union Station, accessible by light rail.

The Nuggets, known as the Denver Rockets until 1974, played at the Denver Auditorium Arena, at 13th & Champa Streets, from their 1967 inception until McNichols opened in 1975. It was also the home of the original Nuggets, who played in various leagues from 1935 to 1948, and then in the NBA until 1950.

It opened in 1908, and its seating capacity of 12,500 made it the 2nd-largest in the country at the time, behind the version of Madison Square Garden then standing. It almost immediately hosted the Democratic National Convention that nominated William Jennings Bryan for President for the 3rd time – although it's probably just a coincidence that the Democrats waited exactly 100 years (give or take a few weeks) to go back (it's not like Obama didn't want to get it right the 1st time, as opposed the 0-for-3 Bryan).

The Auditorium Arena hosted Led Zeppelin's 1st American concert on December 26, 1968. It was demolished in 1990 to make way for the Denver Performing Arts Complex, a.k.a. the Denver Center. Theatre District/Convention Center Station on the light rail's D-Line, F-Line and H-Line.

The Denver area's Major League Soccer team, the Colorado Rapids, plays at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, about 8 miles northeast of downtown. They'e won the MLS Cup since moving there, in 2010.

The U.S. national team has played there 3 times: A 2-0 win over Guatemala in a World Cup Qualifier on November 19, 2008; a 1-0 win over Costa Rica in a World Cup Qualifier on March 22, 2013 (the famous Snow Classico); and a 2-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago in a World Cup Qualifier this past June 8. The women's team has played there twice: A 2008 win over Brazil, and a 2012 win over Australia. It's also hosted football, rugby, lacrosse and concerts.

6000 Victory Way. If you're going in by public transportation from downtown Denver, Number 48 bus to 60th Avenue & Dahlia Street, then Number 88 bus to 60th & Monaco. Then they make you walk 10 blocks on 60th to get to the stadium.

The Beatles played Red Rocks Amphitheatre in suburban Morrison on August 26, 1964. It is still in business, and a Colorado Music Hall of Fame is a short walk away. 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, 10 miles west of downtown. Sorry, no public transportation.

Elvis played 2 shows at the Denver Coliseum on April 8, 1956, and 1 each on November 17, 1970 and April 30, 1973. Built in 1951, it still stands, seating 10,500, and is best known for concerts and the National Western Stock Rodeo. 4600 Humbolt Street at E. 46th Avenue, off Interstate 70, 3 miles northeast of downtown. Apparently, no public transportation to there, either.

On June 5, 1897, the Heavyweight Championship of the World was contested in Colorado. The British-born Champion, Bob Fitzsimmons – supposedly, in response to being told he was too small to fight heavyweights, the originator of the saying, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall" – knocked Lew Joslin out in the 2nd round. The fight happened in Leadville, 100 miles southwest of Denver.

Theoretically, it is possible to get there via public transportation. You'd have to take Greyhound from Denver to Vail, and then a local bus for over an hour to Leadville. And I can't find a source that lists the name of the fight's venue, or its address. So, unless you're a fanatic about boxing history and have to see the sites of every heavyweight title fight, I'd say skip this one.

Denver has some renowned museums, including the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (their version of the Museum of Natural History) at 2001 Colorado Blvd. at Montview Blvd. (in City Park, Number 20 bus), and the Denver Art Museum (their version of the Metropolitan Museum of Natural History), at 100 W. 14th Avenue Parkway at Colfax Avenue (across I-25 from Mile High Stadium, Auraria West station on the C-Line and E-Line).

Denver's history only goes back to a gold rush in 1859 – not to be confused with the 1849 one that turned San Francisco from a Spanish Catholic mission into the first modern city in the American West. The city isn't exactly loaded with history.

There's no Presidential Library – although Mamie Doud, the eventual Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower, grew up there, and her house is now a historic site. Mamie and "Ike" were married there, their son John (a future General, Ambassador and military historian) was born there, and the Eisenhowers were staying there when Ike had his heart attack in 1955. The house is still in private ownership, and is not open to the public. However, if you're a history buff, or if you just like Ike, and want to see it, it's at 750 Lafayette Street, at 8th Avenue. The Number 6 bus will get you to 6th & Lafayette.

After his heart attack, Ike was treated at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in nearby Aurora, 12 years after Senator John Kerry, nearly elected President in 2004 and now Secretary of State, was born there. It's not a Presidential Birthplace, because Kerry narrowly lost. It is now the University of Colorado Hospital. The Fitzsimmons Golf Course is across Montview Boulevard – it figures that Ike would be hospitalized next to a golf course! 16th Avenue & Quentin Street. Number 20 bus from downtown.

The University of Denver's Newman Center for the Performing Arts hosted a 2012 Presidential Debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. 2344 East Iliff Avenue, about 5 miles south of downtown. The University's Magness Arena hosted the Frozen Four in 1961, 1964 and 1976. 2250 E. Jewell Avenue. Both can be reached via H Line light rail to University of Denver Station.

Byron "Whizzer" White was a star football and basketball player at the University of Colorado in the late 1930s, a Rhodes scholar, a running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Detroit Lions, a Bronze Star-winning Navy officer in World War II, one of Colorado's finest lawyers, the chairman of John F. Kennedy's Presidential campaign in the State, and one of the longest-serving Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. He is buried at the Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness, 1350 N. Washington Street at 14th Avenue. Bus 6.

Denver doesn't have as many tall buildings as the nation's bigger cities, nor are they as interesting, architecturally. The tallest building in the State of Colorado is Republic Plaza, 714 feet high, at 17th Street & Tremont Place downtown. A 1,000-foot, 90-story residential/hotel tower, currently named Six Fifty 17 for its address (650 17th Street), has been proposed by Uruguay-born, New York-based architect Carlos Ott and local real estate firm Greenwich Realty Capital. They hope to break ground on it in Summer of 2018.

The University of Colorado is in Boulder, 30 miles to the northwest. At Market Street Station, 16th & Market, take the BV Bus to the Boulder Transit Center, which is on campus. The ride should take about an hour and 20 minutes. Colorado State University is in Fort Collins, 65 miles up Interstate 25 north, and forget about reaching it by public transportation.

The U.S. Air Force Academy is outside Colorado Springs, 60 miles down I-25. As with Fort Collins, you'd need Greyhound. Unlike CSU, you might not be able to just go there: Some of the area is restricted.  It is, after all, a military base.

Colorado Springs was also home to the Broadmoor Ice Palace, which hosted what's now called the Frozen Four every year from its inception in 1948 until 1957, and again in 1969. The 3,000-seat arena at The Broadmoor Resort & Spa was home ice to Colorado College from 1938 to 1994. 1 Lake Avenue, across Cheyenne Lake from the main hotel. Its 7,750-seat 1998 replacement, the Broadmoor World Arena, is 4 miles to the east, at 3185 Venetucci Blvd.

Colorado College has won hockey's National Championship in 1950 and 1957. The University of Denver has won it in 1958, 1960, 1961, 1968, 1969, 2004 and 2005. None of the other Colorado schools has yet won it.

A few TV shows have been set in Denver, but you won't find their filming locations there. The old-time Western Whispering Smith and the more recent one Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman were set in old Colorado (Colorado Springs), but filmed in Southern California. And Greendale, the setting of
Community, is fictional.

Probably the most famous show set in Colorado is South Park, and that's a cartoon, so forget seeing anything from that. Not quite as cartoonish was Mork & Mindy, set in Boulder. The McConnell house actually is in Boulder, at 1619 Pine Street. But don't try to copy the opening-sequence scene with Robin Williams and Pam Dawber on the goalposts at the University of Colorado's Folsom Field. You could fall, and end up saying, "Shazbot!"

The most famous show ever set in Colorado was Dynasty, ABC's Excessive Eighties counterpart to CBS' Dallas, starring John Forsythe as Blake Carrington, an oilman and a thinly-veiled version of Marvin Davis, who nearly bought the Oakland Athletics from Charlie Finley in 1978 with the idea of moving them to Mile High Stadium, but the deal fell through. Right, you don't care about Blake, all you care about is the catfights between the 2nd and 1st Mrs. Carrington's: Krystle (Linda Evans) and Alexis (Joan Collins). The Carrington mansion seen in the opening credits is in Beverly Hills, but the building that stood in for the headquarters of Denver Carrington is at 621 17th Street, while the one that stood in for Colbyco is at 1801 California Street.

Movies set in Denver or its suburbs include The Unsinkable Molly Brown, the original Red Dawn, and, of course, Things to Do In Denver When You're Dead. Films involving skiing often take place in Colorado towns such as Aspen or Vail. City Slickers, a film with loads of baseball references, has a cattle drive that ends in Colorado, but there's no indication of how close it is to Denver. Flashback
takes place on the Pacific Coast, but Denver's Union Station stands in for a train station in San Francisco.

*

The Colorado Avalanche arrived in Denver 20 seasons ago, ready to challenge for the Stanley Cup, and, with a couple of roster tweaks, won it. They stayed strong, won another Cup, fell, and have risen again. Their history isn't long, but it's already deep. Not unlike the Devils.