George W. was on his last term as President of the United States, Joe Sakic was still the captain for the Colorado Avalanche, playing alongside teammates such as Milan Hejduk and Paul Stastny, and the Avs had shut down the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the playoffs. It was April of 2008 and things seemed to be looking good. Unfortunately, the Avs were quickly swept by longtime foe, the Detroit Red Wings, in the proceeding round. It would be the last time the Avalanche would compete in the Western Conference Semifinals. Until now.
Last night the Colorado Avalanche showed up at the Scotiabank Saddledome, and did what needed to be done: they eliminated the top seeded Calgary Flames. It wasn’t much of a contest either. The Avs capitalized everywhere they needed to, beginning with Landeskog lighting up the scoreboard early in the game with his much-deserved first goal of the playoffs. Grubauer continued to come up with big saves, including a couple of breakaway chances by Johnny Gaudreau, one of which was a penalty shot. The Flames would score in the final seconds of the first to make it 2-1, but Wilson would score two back-to-back goals in the second to put the Avs up with a commanding 4-1 lead headed into the third. The Avs closed out the period, and the series, with another goal by Rantanen (his second of the game) making the final score 5-1.
Yuck… x2, actually x3 because Chelios is in the picture.
Some scores don’t always tell the true narrative of the game, such as when the Avs lost 0-4 in Game 1, but two of those goals came very late in the third. While the Avs did lose, it wasn’t nearly as much of a shutout as the scoreboard would suggest, with the Avs having up put nearly 40 shots on goal. However, Game 5 was exactly as the scoreboard says. The Avs won the game because they outplayed the Flames in all facets and deserved to win the series. After the first loss in Game 1, the Avs outscored the Flames 17-7, and outshot them 179-132. Try as they might, it was not enough for Johnny Hockey or any of the subsequent Flames to outskate or outscore the Avs. Despite having squeezed into the playoffs in the final days of the regular season, the Avs went 10-4-2 in the final 16 games leading up to the playoffs, giving them enough momentum to continue their stride into the playoffs.
It has been 11, mostly painful and heartbreaking, seasons, but it was only matter of time until the dormant Avalanche would awaken and make the NHL remember who they are. The Avs are not the All-Star studded team of yore, however, the grit and determination that this team has shown since March is of a different kind of caliber. The speed and drive of the entire team is now a recognizable force in the NHL, where they bulldozed a team that hadn’t had a regular season this good since they won the Cup in 1989.
With both of the top seeds in the Western and Eastern Conferences eliminated by their respective 8th seeded counterparts, it is clear that we are no longer in an era where regular season performance is enough to merit a deep playoff berth. The Tampa Bay Lighting finished the regular season with 62 wins, tying the 1995-1996 Detroit Red Wings for most wins in the regular season. However, 62 wins and 128 points was not enough to defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets. Heck, it wasn’t even enough for them to win a game in the series. Matt Duchene and his fellow Blue Jackets defeated the Lighting in 4 quick games. With the Lighting, the Penguins and the Flames out, it could be anybody’s cup this year. And if it can be anybody’s cup, why couldn’t it be ours?
While it has been more than a decade since we advanced it the playoffs, it has been 18 years since the Avs won Lord Stanley’s Cup. At that time, MacKinnon was five years old, and Cale Makar was only two. For those of us who were lucky enough to be apart of that victory, the last decade’s turbulence has been hard to swallow (literally hard watch at times), but we have been patient, a little restless, but patient.
However let’s not get the 2001 montage going in our heads just yet. We still have a ways to go before we can get there.
In 2008 most people considered the Blackberry cutting edge technology, and while we still may have a turd in the Oval Office, that doesn’t mean the Avs will be destined to repeat their last failed attempt in the Western Conference Semifinals. In fact it doesn’t even matter if we play San Jose or Vegas, because at the very least, we finally have some real playoff hockey back in the Mile High City. Even if we were to fall here once again, it is still better than having sat on the sidelines the whole time like the Wild, Wings and Blackhawks are currently doing. However, with all that being said, I feel like a late spring snowstorm may be headed west. Watch out Round 2 - the Avalanche are coming in hot.