It’s over. It’s done.
The Colorado Avalanche are the 2022 Stanley Cup Champions.
It had been 21 years and 17 days since the Avalanche last won the epitome of sports trophies; a child born in the year the Avs last won could now legally drink from Lord Stanley’s Cup.
On June 9, 2001, the Avs hoisted the Cup for the second time in franchise history. Witnessing the iconic hand-off from Sakic to Bourque in person, getting my driver’s permit in the subsequent days, and having the entire summer vacation ahead of me, I didn’t think it could get much sweeter.
But I was wrong.
This is better. Way better.
Looking back at that date, forever etched in my memory with rosy retrospection, I can say that this championship feels different, and it is in’t often that the present supersedes past fervid memories.
In their inaugural 1995-96 season, the Avalanche claimed Lord Stanley. It brought hockey back to Colorado, and I am forever indebted to that club for transforming me, for better or worse, into the maniacal fan that I am. But more than that, it was the Quebec franchise that bestowed the fans with the highest honor in hockey. Their team went on a playoff drought from 1987-92 and had finally begun to gain momentum, but due to financial troubles and the smaller French-speaking market, the rising team made the move to Denver. With the addition of Patrick Roy mid-season, the Avs would go on to win their first Stanley Cup.
As a hard-core fan, I have always felt guilty for basking in the glory, while Quebec had to withstand the doldrums, only to have their team relocated as they began to show promise. For a die-hard fan, that would be soul-shattering.
In 2001, the Avalanche had a star-studded squad that would be impossible in the current salary-cap era. The Avs had lost to Dallas two years in a row in the Western Conference Finals and wanted the Cup, but they also wanted it for Ray Bourque: a 41-yead old veteran who had never hoisted the Cup in his 21-year reign with the Boston Bruins. He is immortalized on the championship roster, and in the rafters of Ball Arena, but he entered the NHL in 1979 as a Boston Bruin and played his entire career there until coming to Colorado in 2000 with the sole purpose of winning it all. I love Ray, but he really belongs to Boston.
The 1996 and 2001 victories were hard-fought battles, and the team deserved the title, but this Stanely Cup belongs only to Colorado.
Eric Johnson, the longest-tenured Av, has been with the club for 12 of his 14 years in the league. The second-longest Av is Landeskog, who was drafted in 2011 by the Avs and named captain at 19. Our other superstars, MacKinnon, Rantanen, and most recently, Makar, were all drafted by the Colorado Avalanche.
Head coach Jared Bednar made his NHL coaching debut behind our bench. He entered the position in 2016 after our hot-headed hero, Patrick Roy, resigned just before the season started. In Bednar’s first year, we had our worst record in franchise history, finishing with 48 points. Dead last, with a margin of 21 points. The following year, we made the playoffs.
The subsequent seasons weren’t perfect; in fact, they ended in disappointment. However, rather than making the fast adjustments that are typically done in the NHL, Super GM Joe maintained his developmental course. With each post-season exit, we cultivated the losses as opportunities to fuel growth.
And it worked.
This year, we dominated the league in the regular season, and as the playoffs progressed, we only improved. The Avs raised Lord Stanley with a 16-4 record, the second-best record in NHL history. The last team to win the Stanley Cup in only 20 games were the 2012 LA Kings. They went 9-1 on the road, only losing Game 3 to the two-time defending champions in Tampa, and had ten comeback wins. In their final period of the season, the Avs held Tampa Bay to four shots on goal, and two were with an empty net, to maintain their lead and secure the win.
My Cup costume has a few damages, similar to the dent the real cup suffered after Aube-Kubel tripped and drop it prior to the group photo.
If you’re lucky enough to be an Avs fan since the beginning, you’ve seen a lot of victories and also a lot of defeats, but we have also been privileged to see a team grow up and mature together. A team that has fought together, lost together and now won together. It is all of these small things that add up to one giant accomplishment. For this Avs’ fan words will never be able to translate how proud I am of my team, what they have sacrificed to make it here, and the undying support of people who believed in them to get where they are.
This monumental season is over and done, but this Avalanche legacy is just beginning.
Stay tuned for future posts as I cover the Summer of Stanley as there are too many good storylines for a singular post.