DENVER -- When Mike Ricci heads to Denver this week for the 2016 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series Alumni Game between the Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings at Coors Field on Friday, he should have no trouble getting a table at one of the city's finer restaurants.
After all, he was a member of the 1996 Stanley Cup champion Avalanche.
But there was a time when no one in the Mile High City knew who Ricci, or any member of the Avalanche, was.
"In Quebec, everyone knew who we were, in Colorado we couldn't get a table," said Ricci, a member of the Nordiques when the franchise moved to Denver after the 1995 season.