Exactly one year and six months.
Or, to put it differently, 548 days.Or, roughly speaking, 13,152 hours.
Confused? Hockey fans aren't. That's how long they will have gone without professional hockey by the time the puck is dropped for the Utah Grizzlies and the Peoria Rivermen at the Delta Center Friday night.
It's been a long, arid thaw. But now the future is as bright as a breakaway on an empty net.
The Wasatch Front has never been dull when it comes to competitive athletics. With the NBA Jazz, two major universities and a AAA baseball team that leads the Pacific Coast League in attendance, the average spectator has many choices.
But the puzzle has been missing a piece since the Golden Eagles left town for Detroit after that final game on April 6, 1994.
Hockey, after all, was the wedge that pushed Salt Lake City into the community of major sports cities.
When Dan Meyer brought the Golden Eagles here in 1969 as part of the Western Hockey League, the Salt Palace was brand-new and skeptics wondered whether the city was ready for professional indoor sports. The early success of the team answered those questions and gave professional basketball the confidence to come as well.
Along the way, the Golden Eagles survived the demise of two leagues. Then, because of the persistence of owner Art Teece, the team became the leaven that allowed the International Hockey League to expand from a provincial Midwest bus league to a nationwide league of big cities.
But, unlike the Jazz, the Eagles never outgrew the Salt Palace arena. They seemed lost in the spacious Delta Center, where many seats don't allow a full view of the rink.
That's a challenge the Grizzlies will have to face as well. But the team's decision to move here has led to plans for a full-fledged hockey arena in West Valley City.
Because of that, the opening face-off Friday night should usher in a new, bright era for the sport - one that will allow Salt Lake City's original indoor professional sport to grow and prosper.