Photos: Phoenix Mercury Vs. Los Angeles Sparks

Valeri Nichushkin’s absence from the final five games of last season became a dominant storyline as the Avalanche’s title defense fizzled with a first-round loss to the Seattle Kraken. There are other key players who won’t be on the ice Thursday when Colorado officially opens training camp to start the 2023-24 season, but Nichushkin is expected to participate.

The Broncos’ defensive issues just got more complicated. Starting safety Justin Simmons did not participate Wednesday’s practice due to a hip injury. Simmons was not in uniform while stretching on the side field during the media’s viewing period. Broncos’ defensive tackle Mike Purcell (ankle) and outside linebacker Frank Clark (hip) also did not practice, while left tackle Garett Bolles (ankle) was a limited participant. The Broncos’ secondary has had its fair share of injury issues.

Sean Payton is plenty familiar with Vic Fangio. Heck, he knows who taught Fangio math in sixth grade. But an offensive game-planner can never have too much information about his next adversary. Payton, as it happens, now works in a place with a wealth of Fangio familiarity. After all, Miami’s defensive coordinator coached many of the current Broncos defenders and players up through the 2021 season during his nearly three years as Denver’s head coach. “I was just talking to (veteran safety Kareem Jackson) earlier,” Payton said Wednesday.

Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews hopes to reach an agreement with the organization on a contract extension before the 2023-24 season, he said Wednesday. “My intent is to stay here the rest of my career,” Toews said during the team’s preseason media day. The 29-year-old blueliner is entering the last season of a four-year deal with an average annual value of $4.1 million, occupying 4.5% of the team’s available cap space in 2023-24.

A lacerated liver for CU Buffs star Travis Hunter is the price of doing business, when doing what’s right or wrong doesn’t really matter in college football, so long as the hype machine keeps printing money. And aren’t victories for money the bottom-line reason why Deion Sanders is here? While responsibility for the cheap shot begins with Colorado State safety Henry Blackburn, who made himself a comic-book villain that acted too macho for his green-and-gold britches, everybody who dialed up the heat on a silly football game, including us in the media, bears some responsibility for the tackle that sent Hunter to the hospital and knocked him out of the Heisman Trophy race. Maybe Hunter explained it best, while wearing a giraffe costume during a live video stream from his room: “It’s football.

The Rockies did immediate damage on Wednesday, but the bats went flat from there. Colorado blew another late lead in the process, falling to the Padres, 3-2, in the Rockies’ 19th loss when leading after six innings this season. Chase Anderson pitched well for a second straight outing, but dropped to 0-6 on the year as he lacked run support after the opening frame at Petco Park. “That’s a tough one,” manager Bud Black told reporters.