I probably never would have admitted this even a year or two ago. After all, it’s undignified and unprofessional as a sports writer, or so I was always told, to have any real feelings for the team you cover. You’re supposed to care as much about how the team does as you do about buying a loaf of bread, you’re told.

God, what a crock that all was.

The truth is: the Colorado Avalanche means one hell of a lot to me. It’s amazing to me to try and really think about, but the fact is the Avs have been kind of a soundtrack to almost half my life now.

As a part-time, mostly prep sports writer in 1995, I broke the story that the owners of the Denver Nuggets, an outfit called Comsat Video Enterprises, made a $75 million offer to buy the Quebec Nordiques. Three months later, the Nordiques really did move to Denver, and a few weeks later were given their new name at an unveiling at the Westin Tabor Center. I was there for that, and for their first preseason road trip, for their first home game at the old McNichols Sports Arena, for their first regular-season road game in Los Angeles at the Fabulous Forum against Wayne Gretzky’s Kings, for their playoff game at home against Vancouver and…my God, for the first 20 years of their existence.

I went from a kid living in my parent’s basement in New Hampshire to, just a couple years later, flying on a plane listening to Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic tell hockey stories. Nobody needs to remind me how lucky I am to have done that.

I probably wouldn’t have admitted this before, either, but it’s true: I got a bit jaded by it all for a while. Fancy hotels, expense accounts, first-class airplane rides, free food in press boxes, big cities, nice restaurants, famous acquaintances, name on the front page of a big newspaper…yeah, yeah, been there, done all that man. Now, where’s my room service order and where’s the damn valet driver???

I got brought back down to earth real quick. And thank God I did, because I didn’t like the person I was becoming. Thanks to family, friends and a bunch of kids that I taught for a while in a tough school district, I lost my growing air of entitlement and got my older, nicer self back.

Along the way, too, I met some people at a place called BSN Denver that reminded me of that younger, hungrier person I had been. The young person who would do anything to make it in the sports media business? That was me, and now I see it every day in my colleague on the Avalanche beat, A.J. Haefele.

Some Avs fans have started to ask me more and more: What’s A.J. like, what’s it like to work with him? It’s like working with Rain Man, I tell them. A.J. knows every single thing about every Avs player, every Avs prospect, every potential Avs prospect and pretty much every player and every prospect of every NHL team, and I’m not at all kidding.

A.J. and the rest of the staff at BSN are all insanely hungry to give you the best product possible in the sports media business. And they have lit the fire in me again too. I want to give you the very best there is in coverage of the Avalanche. I think we already do that at BSN. I know we do, in fact.

But we need a little help in giving you even more. If you’re a regular reader of this site, you know that, a few weeks ago, I was in Brooklyn covering the Avs the night the Matt Duchene trade went down. I was able to give you, in my less-than-humble opinion, the best coverage of that whole thing. And so was A.J., back in Denver, writing the best stories about the new players and prospects the Avs were getting.

Things like that cost money. It doesn’t have to be a lot – I’m cheap on the road and so is A.J. I don’t need any 5-star hotels anymore. Give me a mattress and running water and a couple bucks for a Dunkin’ Donuts large ice coffee and I’m fine.

The money you give us will be plowed back into the site, to give you better coverage of what I think will be a very good and very exciting team for years to come.

There are a couple other people like me out there working at sites like this one – Dejean Kovacevic in Pittsburgh, at DKPittsburghsports.com, and Greg Bedard at BostonSportsJournal.com – guys who used to be at big, fancy companies but chucked it all to start something new from the ground up.

They are much happier people today, and so am I working at BSN Denver. I’m back to being the hungry guy again, hungry to impress with the quality writing I know I can still deliver and hungry to pay it forward to the people I work with. But most important, to pay it forward to you.

A.J. HAEFELE

Adrian and I couldn’t have taken two more different paths to find BSN Denver and we’re both better for it. All of our experiences have led us to covering the team the only way we know how – an ongoing love letter to hockey. We believe the changes we’re making will only allow us to continue to serve you with the best hockey coverage and unparalleled passion.

We never would have gotten where we are today without the relationship we’ve built with you, the readers.

Thanks, and we hope you take a leap of faith with us. We know we’ll deliver the goods.

Sincerely,

Adrian Dater and A.J. Haefele