They are three years removed from the championship run that sparked excited questions on whether a dynasty would be born.

But with 82 regular-season games and six weeks of playoffs that usually include at least a few full-scale riots with the Detroit Red Wings, it's near impossible to establish a dynasty in the NHL these days.

Even more so with the culture of a free-agent market.

	The Avs may not get Forsberg back for another two months due to his shoulder rehab.

"They're like a lot of teams, just trying to maintain the balance and keep on," a rival Central Division coach said of the Colorado Avalanche. "They're certainly not as deep as they were last year. But they're not a bad team, either."

But is simply not bad ever going to be good enough for Avalanche fans whose first taste of the game was the spoils of Stanley Cup victory?

It's not 1996 in Denver any longer.

Yes, the Nuggets remain woeful. But the home runs flying out of Coors Field are mostly hit by other teams. The footballs being tossed around Mile High are by Bob Griese's kid and some old guy named Bubby, not from a proven champion named Elway.

And most important to hockey fans, the Avalanche aren't rolling over teams any more.

In fact, there is enough cause to wonder whether they themselves are ready to completely roll over.

"No way, they're still going to be good," said former Av and current Ranger Eric Lacroix. "The last five years they've kept their core players. They've still got a really good team. They have changed a lot of faces, but they keep Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic, and they keep (Adam) Foote and (Adam) Deadmarsh. ... These guys are star players. And it seems like every year there's different younger players who step in around them. Last year, it was Chris Drury and (Milan) Hejduk. They came in, were given the chance, and became good young players.

"I think what (the Avalanche) are now is a product of the business. I mean, you can say they had to make changes because the payroll was getting too high, but that's what this game is all about now. But they've been able to make changes and still keep the main guys there."

If it's clear that Colorado isn't quite ready to join an expanding list of NHL also-rans, then it's also obvious the survivors of a summer invasion by Neil Smith's swollen wallet have a much stiffer challenge ahead of them than any time in recent seasons.

Flashing some New York-sized dough, Smith systematically wooed free agents Theo Fleury, Valeri Kamensky and Sylvain Lefebvre away while the Avalanche were nervously trying to sustain business as usual through a summer ownership war.

Through a failed sale and threats of lawsuits and a potential buyer disguised as a princess ... through that whole ridiculous three-month mess, Colorado sat and waited while its roster wilted. Finally, a $461 million purchase by Donald Sturm went down, acquiring the Nuggets, Avs and Pepsi Center, which is scheduled to open Oct. 1.

All well and good, except Colorado's hockey team, so deep just a few years ago, now has to count heavily on young, inexperienced players.

Fleury, the summer's top free-agent prize who admitted he was initially reluctant to take the Rangers' three-year, $21 million deal, said the ownership shufflings probably cost him any chance of staying on in Denver as he had wished. But general manager Pierre Lacroix, the man who once traded his own son, was reportedly upset with Fleury's lackluster playoff performance (no goals in his last nine games) and didn't want to spend a first-round pick as compensation to Calgary if Fleury re-signed. Put simply, Lacroix had no interest in retaining the services of another superstar to pad his escalating payroll.

He's already got two pillars named Forsberg and Sakic occupying the loftiest of perches -- and tax brackets.

"One thing about Colorado you can always count on," said Nashville coach Barry Trotz, "is that every game they'll keep throwing Sakic and Forsberg at you. Both of those guys log 30 minutes or better every game. And when it counts, they'll doubleshift them. That makes it difficult for any team.

"Overall, they probably don't have the depth that they once did, but as long as they have those two guys, they'll always be there."

For now, however, they don't have them together.

Forsberg has not recovered from the shoulder injury he suffered in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals against the Dallas Stars. There are predictions he'll be back at full strength by early December. There are whispers it could be much longer. Officially, the prognosis is "indefinite."

Ouch.

To fill the hole, the Avs will start the season with rookie Dan Hinote, a former West Point cadet and native of Florida, lining up as a fourth-line center. If he doesn't work out, Calder Trophy winner Chris Drury will probably have to move to the middle from left wing, where he was expected to step into Kamensky's second-line role. Even that move would have left the Avs thin on that side because coach Bob Hartley was already considering moving former left winger Adam Deadmarsh to bolster the weakened middle to compensate for the inured Alex Tanguay.

There are only so many holes you can patch up, even if it always seems to look good. Oh, and by the way, with just one exhibition remaining, the Avs were 1-6-1 in preseason games.

Not that it means anything.

"You look at a guy like Val," Eric Lacroix said of his "new" teammate Kamensky. "Now, that's a loss that's going to hurt them because he was a core player. A fixture on the left side. But overall, it's not going to kill them. Even though Val is such a great player, they always manage to bring other guys in so they're still going to be a good team."

Unless Forsberg makes an expeditious and complete recovery, they won't be.

In the final analysis, the Avalanche simply won't have the depth to keep up with Dallas, even if the Stars' Stanley Cup hangover lasts past Halloween. Instead, the Avalanche will tread along at a make-the-playoffs pace, sweating out Forsberg's recovery while counting on rookies like Martin Skoula and Tanguay (if he doesn't go back to juniors) to eventually develop by spring, and keeping their fingers crossed that their middle-aged goaltender doesn't break down before then.

And, of course, they'll have to lean extra hard on Sakic, the one true offensive middleman this once center-rich team will have entering the season.

Sakic has been around long enough to remember the gory days as a young idol with a horrendous team in Quebec City. That was a perfect training ground for the captain called upon to wage scoring battles all by himself. So strange that he'd find himself in that position again so soon.

"We knew all along, right from the minute that we made the trade, that there was a pretty good chance (Fleury) might not be back," Sakic told The Denver Post. "The guys knew it. That trade was made for a playoff run. But I'm not going to feel any more pressure than I have in the past. Obviously, we're all going to feel more pressure to put the puck in the net. We're not going to probably score as much as we did last year. We just have to play better defensively."

That would certainly help Patrick Roy, who is still working to come off minor hip surgery three weeks ago, but is expected to be ready for the opener. What goalies of Roy's advanced age aren't usually ready for are daily doses of savior duty. He'll turn 34 on Oct. 5, and should be ready to cut back his schedule this season to properly prepare for a playoff run in the spring.

Instead, Roy may be in for one of his busiest campaigns in years. Without Forsberg and the departed Fleury and Kamensky, goal production is sure to be at an all-time low in Colorado. Without Lefebvre, an already slipping defense is now treading the line of mediocre. Without an ownership funneling funds until it was too late, Lacroix couldn't get anyone to fill the defensive void, leaving the Avs to count on rookie defender Skoula to fill the void. And without departed backup goalie Craig Billington, Roy's workload will surely be on the rise.

So many questions ... so long a time to either pass or fail before the playoffs.

Rob Parent covers the NHL for the Delaware County (Pa.) Times.