Mets enjoy NHL playoff experience on rare snow day in Denver

DENVER — School children aren’t the only people who get snow days.

As Denver was walloped by one of the biggest May snowfalls in the metro area’s history Tuesday, the Mets found themselves with the rare, mid-series day off — that is, if they were willing to brave the nearly six inches of snow that coated the streets in just a few short hours.

So, what do you do when there are no sports to play? Well, for many of these Mets, if you can’t play, you might as well watch. And wouldn’t you know it — there happened to be a few athletes in town uniquely suited for cold weather competition.

The Avalanche beat the Wild, 5-2, to take a 2-0 series lead in the semifinals of the NHL’s Western Conference playoffs at Ball Arena here in Denver Tuesday, and a slew of Mets went down to show their support . . . even if some of them were still trying to figure out what was going on.

“It was my first time,” Luis Torrens told Newsday. “Those guys are tough. You have to keep yourself mentally in the game because you get hit [so often] and you have to [push that] away and just continue. They do that well . . .

“I didn’t understand anything about it so I just asked the people around me.”

And, would he go again?

“Oh yeah, it was fun.”

Torrens, Clay Holmes, Luke Weaver, Craig Kimbrel and Sean Manaea were among the hockey contingent — all with either casual or very limited interest in the sport. But they still proved what diehard NHL fans have known their entire lives: Playoff hockey sucks you in no matter what.

(It doesn’t hurt that it’s played indoors.)

“We did nothing outside,” Holmes said. “We had like two blocks walking in the snow [to the arena]. It was cool. It was a lot of fun. Obviously, they got a good team . . . It’s always fun to catch playoff hockey and see it up close.”

And is he a big hockey guy?

“Not really,” he said.

“I don’t know if I should say that because we had a hockey giveaway jersey last year [with my name on it],” Holmes said. “That’s a little ironic.”

Kimbrel, who grew up in Huntsville, Alabama — actually a pretty big hockey town, he noted — said he “didn’t grow up on the ice. I grew up on the dirt . . . ”

“I’ve tried” to skate, he said. “Don’t ice skate in blue jeans.”

Still, it was a good team bonding activity — even if the last-minute tickets meant that most guys couldn’t sit together. Kimbrel’s also adopted the Predators since moving to Nashville.

Weaver said he didn’t really grow up in the area of Florida where hockey is king — even if the Panthers and Lightning have been perpetual contenders. Tuesday was only the third hockey game he’s ever attended; for what it’s worth, he does skate, just not on the ice.

“You’re just impressed by their craft,” he said. “I think it’s really just the hand-eye coordination, handling the puck and how fast [it is]. It’s like getting hit by a linebacker and then being able to finagle the puck through someone’s legs . . . There was a lot of feel with the puck and movement at full speed that was like, ‘Jeez, alright.’ ”

But not everyone spent the snow day watching how their laced and padded counterparts faired.

“I went to the mall,” Mark Vientos said. “And then I watched the Michael Jackson movie. It was cool.”

Carson Benge merely shook his head violently — the verbal equivalent of it is too, too cold for any of this “going outside” nonsense.

“I didn’t do anything,” he said.

And then, of course, there was the manager, doing manager things.

“I watched a lot of film from our guys, a lot of baseball,” Carlos Mendoza said. “There’s not much to do.”

That’s not quite in the true spirit of the snow day, but given his role on the team, it’s allowed.

Notes & quotes: A.J. Minter, who was nearing a return from the torn lat that cost him nearly all of 2025, was pulled off his rehab assignment after experiencing left hip discomfort. “We’re not too concerned,” Mendoza said. “We’ll probably give him a few days there and he’ll continue to throw.” It’s the same hip Minter had surgery on in 2024; because of the setback, his rehab clock will restart . . . Jorge Polanco (ankle, wrist) was off Wednesday from baseball activities but ran on Tuesday. Mendoza believes he’s still not near a rehab assignment. “It’s kind of day to day,” he said. “It’s been like that for a long time.” . . . Kodai Senga (lumbar spine inflammation) played catch for the first time Wednesday. “He’s feeling a lot better, so now we’ve just got to build him back up with the throwing programs and the mound progressions,” Mendoza said.

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.