Claude Lemieux sees Stanley Cup potential in Avalanche, much like his title team in '95-96

DENVER (AP) — The Stanley Cup was in the building Thursday night as part of the pregame celebration to honor the 1995-96 Colorado Avalanche squad.

It could be in the building again later this season, too.

At least, longtime forward Claude Lemieux believes so. He's been on four Stanley Cup-winning teams, including the ‘95-96 Avalanche squad. This team, he surmised after watching a 6-2 win over the two-time defending champion Florida Panthers, has all the necessary ingredients.

“I love watching them play,” said Lemieux, whose squad back then won the Mile High City’s first major professional championship in their first season in town after relocating from Quebec. “They’re fun to watch.”

In a lot of ways, this version is built in the image of that squad. No real surprise there, given the architect of this team is Hall of Famer turned front office executive Joe Sakic.

Back then, Sakic, the captain, and fellow Hall of Famer Peter Forsberg helped provide the scoring punch in a season that ended with a Stanley Cup Final sweep over Florida. Colorado had a blue line that include a rugged defender in Adam Foote and a scoring defenseman in Sandis Ozolinsh. They also had another Hall of Famer in goaltender Patrick Roy.

This team has that same sort of makeup. They have an elite goal scorer (Nathan MacKinnon), leadership (captain Gabriel Landeskog), even more leadership (40-year-old Brent Burns), a scoring defenseman (Cale Makar) and reliable goaltending (Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood).

The current crew watched Thursday night as the players from the '95-96 squad were recognized. They heard the applause. They then went out and put on a show for them.

“This team knows what it takes,” Lemieux said. “They have players, quite a few of them, that were on the ‘22 Cup. I think it could be the ’26 Cup.”

The Avalanche (22-2-7) have a league-leading 51 points so far this season as they became the sixth team in the last 20 years to reach the 50-point plateau in 31 or fewer games. What's more, they still haven't lost a game at home in regulation (12-0-2).

Avalanche coach Jared Bednar thinks it was a valuable experience having the older players back in the building. The current roster briefly got to chat with them Thursday morning, and hear some stories.

“Obviously, they accomplished that two years before I was born,” Makar cracked. “But I've obviously heard a lot about it. It’s pretty cool they bring legends like that back.”

Some of the Avalanche players who made the trip to the rink for the ceremony from the 1995-96 squad included Forsberg, Stephane Yelle, Valeri Kamensky, Lemieux, Ozolinsh, Mike Ricci and, of course, Sakic.

“For them to be able to come back and get together as a group and share their stories with our guys and amongst one another, I’m sure it’s been a great couple days for them,” Bednar said. “We’ve been really happy that they were able to come and visit us.”

It gave the old-timers a chance to stroll down memory lane.

“When it’s happening, when you’re in the middle of it, you don’t quite appreciate it as much as you should,” said Lemieux, who also won Stanley Cup titles with Montreal (1985-86) and two with the New Jersey Devils (1994-5, 1999-00). “So you get to relive it now.”

How has the game has changed?

“We think we’re better — no, we’re just kidding,” Lemieux said. “The game’s change. It’s not as physical as it was, but to counter that physicality they've got so much more skills. So we appreciate the game. We appreciate their skills and everything they bring.”

The get-together provided a chance to remember old teammates, too. The late Chris Simon was represented during the on-ice ceremony by his children. He died in 2024 at 52.

“It’s very difficult, and especially with Chris passing at such a young age,” Lemieux said. “We have to count our blessings — be grateful for the days that we have and enjoy and appreciate those times when we get together."

Lemieux certainly enjoyed being around this new cast of Avalanche.

“We hope we bring them good luck," Lemieux said, "and inspire them to win another Cup.”

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Members from the 1996 Stanley Cup Championship team of the Colorado Avalanche gather for a group shot during a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of winning the Cup before an NHL hockey game against the Florida Panthers, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Colorado Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic and member of team that won the Stanley Cup in 1996, is introduced during a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the win before an NHL hockey game against the Florida Panthers, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Peter Forsberg waves as he is introduced as one of the members from the Colorado Avalanche's 1996 Stanley Cup Championship team during a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the victory before an NHL hockey game against the Florida Panthers, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Members of the 1996 Stanley Cup Championship team from the Colorado Avalanche are honored to mark the 30th anniversary of winning the Cup before an NHL hockey game against the Florida Panthers Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

NAPLES, Italy (AP) — At long last, vindication is at hand for an Oscar-winning composer who sought to prove he was just as capable of breathing life into Italy’s grand theaters as into gritty Hollywood films.

On Friday night, Naples’ Teatro San Carlo will stage Ennio Morricone’s only opera, “Partenope,” three full decades after its composition. It is inspired by the mythical siren who drowned herself after failing to enchant Ulysses, her body washing ashore and becoming a settlement that grew over millennia into the seaside city of Naples.

When Morricone wrote “Partenope” in 1995, he was already the world-famous creator of the theme to the Spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and haunting soundtracks for epic films such as “The Untouchables” and “Once Upon a Time in America.”

He earned an Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2007, but his compositions never resounded in the hallowed halls of opera houses — viewed in his home country as the elite musical echelon. To his great chagrin, Partenope gathered dust for decades; Morricone died without seeing it performed.

“In the end, he read as a sign of destiny the fact he would not make his debut in the opera world,” Alessandro De Rosa, a close collaborator who coauthored Morricone's autobiography, said in an interview. “I’m sure that if he were alive now, he would have taken the challenge and would have dialogued with the orchestra and the director, tirelessly, like a young kid.”

Director Vanessa Beecroft and conductor Riccardo Frizza had to find their way through the visionary work without the benefit of those notes.

“It would have been wonderful to be able to talk to Morricone about his musical choices … but we had to understand them from what he left us and tried to interpret them in the best way,” Frizza said.

For instance, he chose not to use violins in this orchestra, instead favoring flutes, harps and horns, which appear in Greek mythology, Frizza explained.

“Then you have the modern instruments, lots of percussion, with the Neapolitan sounds provided by tambourines and putipu’,” he added, referencing a friction drum used in local folk music.

Teatro San Carlo was filled with anticipation on Thursday evening as Neapolitans attended an open rehearsal. Free tickets were snapped up in just a few hours.

“It was such a long wait, that’s why we are here today,” said middle-aged Alfonso Ieneroso as he entered the theater.

The mythical Partenope is part of Naples’ culture, with tradition suggesting her voice represents the city’s enduring spirit. The original Greek settlement was named for her. She is depicted at monuments like the Fontana della Sirena, a fountain that has become one of the city's symbols. Young children all along the Gulf of Naples, living under Mount Vesuvius’ shadow, learn the legend of Partenope from their parents.

And like Morricone's opera, Naples itself spent decades downtrodden and overlooked, but is enjoying resurgence: The U.N. recognized its pizza makers as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity; It featured on foreign media lists of must-visit destinations; Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels were acclaimed bestsellers that became an HBO series; and its soccer team in 2023 took home the nation’s top league trophy for the first time since Maradona played in the 1980s — then won again in May.

Naples has also been celebrating its 2,500th anniversary this year, and Morricone’s opera marks the culmination of festivities. The protagonist in his adaptation is a woman who, after her husband dies and she is separated from her best friend, refuses the consolation of being transformed into a distant constellation. Instead, she asks the gods to let her stretch her wings along the gulf on which an immortal city will arise.

The production explores the link between the ancient legend and the modern city’s identity, as two sopranos embody Partenope simultaneously, reflecting her dual nature as body and myth.

Morricone originally composed the one-act opera — free of charge — to accompany a libretto by authors Guido Barbieri and Sandro Cappelletto for a small festival in Positano, just south of Naples on the Amalfi coast. But it was not to be: the festival went bankrupt and Partenope was shelved.

There were several attempts to revive their work, including one between 1998 and 2000 with the Teatro Massimo of Palermo. But that project ultimately ran aground when a director couldn’t be secured.

“In those years Morricone had the torment of not being accepted as a composer of what he called ‘absolute music,’ as he was identified with his popular movie scores,” Barbieri, one of the libretto’s authors, said in an interview. Cappelletto said that, in a conversation with the two authors in 2017, three years before his death, Morricone appeared “at peace” with his music career.

Partenope has inspired several productions over the centuries, including operas by renowned composers George Frideric Handel and Antonio Vivaldi in the 18th century, and a 2024 movie by Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino. Morricone’s work is finally coming alive to join their ranks.

“It was a great pleasure to listen to Morricone’s music, the real protagonist of this opera,” said Giovanni Capuano, a 26-year-old cinema student, after Thursday's rehearsal. “His spirit is back and has enchanted us.”

Zampano reported from Rome.

People queue at the San Carlo Theatre, in Naples, Italy, to attend at the general rehearsal of Ennio Morricone's only opera, Partenope, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

Actors perform during the general rehearsal of Ennio Morricone's only opera, Partenope, at the San Carlo Theatre, in Naples, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

Actors perform during the general rehearsal of Ennio Morricone's only opera, Partenope, at the San Carlo Theatre, in Naples, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

EDS NOTE: NUDITY - Actors perform during the general rehearsal of Ennio Morricone's only opera, Partenope, at the San Carlo Theatre, in Naples, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

Actors perform during the general rehearsal of Ennio Morricone's only opera, Partenope, at the San Carlo Theatre, in Naples, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)