Avalanche Postpones Two Playoff Games

With Denver mourning the shooting deaths of students at a suburban high school, the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday postponed its opening two NHL playoff games and the Colorado Rockies called off a second baseball game.

Citing ownership sentiment that “we have to act like all these kids are our kids,” Avalanche General Manager Pierre Lacroix said his team and the San Jose Sharks will not play the first two games of their best-of-seven series Wednesday night and tonight in Denver as scheduled.

Instead, the series will open in San Jose on Saturday, when Game 3 originally was scheduled to be played.

Game 2 will be in San Jose on Monday, with the series shifting to Denver for games Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Game 6, if necessary, would be the following Monday in San Jose, and Game 7 would be back in Denver--on a date to be determined.

Although the Avalanche still would host four games of the seven-game series, the sometimes pivotal first two games will be staged in San Jose instead of Denver.

Asked if that amounts to a disadvantage for his team, Lacroix said, “We thought about the hockey aspect, but there is nothing more important than showing respect for our community. We don’t look at this in any way, shape or form as an advantage or a disadvantage.”

The uncertainty about the date for Game 7 is because of potential arena and television conflicts.

Avalanche forward Claude Lemieux wondered aloud if playing the games as scheduled “might have provided some distraction and helped more than just offering our prayers and thoughts. I don’t know.”

At Coors Field, the Rockies postponed Wednesday’s game against Montreal, just as they had postponed Tuesday’s. The teams will play two split doubleheaders when the Expos return to Denver Aug. 13-15, but the exact dates of the doubleheaders haven’t been set.

The Rockies will wear a Columbine High patch on their right sleeves for the remainder of the season.

In November 1963, when President Kennedy was assassinated, three NBA games were postponed Friday, Nov. 22, the day the president was shot. The league resumed play Saturday with two games.

On Sunday, the day before the president’s funeral, the fledgling American Football League scrapped its schedule of five games and the NHL postponed a game at Boston. The established NFL, however, went ahead and played in a decision that was widely criticized. Years later, Commissioner Pete Rozelle called it the worst move he made in running the league.