Dater’s Daily: Avalanche Opening Night Ticket Prices Steep, Tortorella Hyped

A good Friday to all. Another scorcher on tap. Let’s do some hockey notes, thoughts and whatnot, starting with some pretty steep ticket prices for Avalanche opening night against Chicago Oct. 12:

• Bring your wallet if you’re going to opening night. On the Avalanche website, where you click on “Tickets on sale now”, the lowest prices I saw were $189 for upper deck seats, with lower bowl tickets going for as much as $1,250. (Avalanche website)
• New coach John Tortorella is uncertain whether the Philadelphia Flyers will name a captain for next season.
• Tortorella seems geeked up to coach the Flyers, despite the team doing not much at all in free agency (Philly Hockey Now)
• Possible trade partners for Matthew Tkachuk (Calgary Hockey Now)
• Nashville got a pretty good player yesterday (NHL.com)
• Sounds like the Sharks are hiring former Avalanche assistant David Quinn as their next coach (San Jose Hockey Now)
• The Boston Bruins aren’t expected to be major players in the Tkachuk NHL trade sweepstakes.
• Can Kasperi Kapanen finally become Kasperi Kapanen for the Pittsburgh Penguins after they signed him to a two-year, $3.2 million extension?
• Our Stefen Rosner isn’t giving up on his advocacy for the New York Islanders to acquire Vladimir Tarasenko, who could become available on the NHL trade market if the Blues make the expected push to acquire hometown boy, Matthew Tkachuk.
• Have the Washington Capitals improved or are they in decline? Sammi Silber has the answers!
• Despite a recent report that said J.T. Miller and the Vancouver Canucks were close on a contract extension, Miller said that’s not the case.