Dater: Here We Are Again, Game 7

I won’t be in the building. Maybe that’s the best thing the Avs have going for them Saturday night in Dallas, for Game 7? Makes as much sense as anything else I can think of. As I wrote the other day, I have absolutely no feel for how the Avs will play, in general, and certainly not in Dallas for this Game 7. I can see them winning big and I can see them getting blown away. I can see them winning on a glorious overtime goal, and I can see them losing in the final minute of regulation on a goal off a guy’s butt.

This will be the fourth Game 7 between the Avs and Stars since 1999. I was in the building for the first three, and here are my personal memories from each one:

• 1999, Game 7 Western Conference finals, Reunion Arena, Dallas - I remember a couple of things vividly from this night. One, when Avs GM Pierre Lacroix loudly slammed his fist on the table in front of him, in the press box, when Mike Keane scored the second of two goals to make it 3-0 in the second period of an eventual 4-1 Stars win. Mike Keane, who was such an integral part of the 1996 Cup team but who left for free agency after the 1996-97 season for the New York Rangers, then was traded to the Stars. He was Patrick Roy’s good buddy, and here he was scoring two goals on him in a Game 7. Lacroix never should have let him get away, and his fist-pounding that night was Exhibit A. Second, I remember very nearly shoving a Stars fan right by the glass at the end of the game. You see, in those days, you had to walk down the aisle of the lower bowl stands to get to the dressing rooms in a timely manner after games. With the game over by the final couple minutes, I went trudging down the aisle with some other press people. Well, a very drunken Stars fan looked at my media pass that said “Adrian Dater, Denver Post” and immediately started heckling me. “Eddie’s Better”, “Avs suck”, stuff like that. Hey, no problem pal, knock yourself out. I’d be yelling the same thing if I were a Stars fan. Problem was, he grabbed my media pass and tried to yank it off. I moved out of the way, and he made another move toward me. It was at that point where I very, very nearly gave him a good, hard shove. But thankfully, I must have thought better of it and walked down the tunnel to the dressing room area. On the other hand, part of me regrets never knocking the guy on his jackass.