Colorado Avalanche climb the Stanley Cup summit, capping one of hockey’s most dominant runs

Frank Seravalli
Frank Seravalli(frank_seravalli)
Colorado Avalanche climb the Stanley Cup summit, capping one of hockey’s most dominant runs

TAMPA, Fla. — Before the Colorado Avalanche kissed Lord Stanley’s freshly dented mug, before the champagne soaked their shirts, there was a quiet elevator ride from the press box to ice level at Amalie Arena for the disparate management groups of these two titans after a heavyweight slugfest.

There was no hooting and hollering, no backslapping, no hugging for Avalanche GM Joe Sakic and his team – definitely not in front of the competition, that isn’t in Sakic’s humble nature.

As the doors closed, Lightning GM Julien BriseBois turned to Sakic and said: “You’ve set the standard now.” Sakic thanked him, and without a blink, responded: “You showed us the way.”

It was a passing of the torch just minutes before the official passing of the Stanley Cup, to a new and worthy champion for the first time in three years. The Colorado Avalanche climbed the Stanley Cup summit for the first time since 2001 – and did so with one of the most dominant performances the hockey world has ever seen.

The Avs ran through the playoff gauntlet with a 16-4 record. Only one team since 1987, when all four rounds moved to best-of-seven, has captured the Cup with fewer than four losses: the 1988 Edmonton Oilers. That’s the type of company Colorado has kept. 

In a sport so random and unpredictable, it’s so rare that a team lives up to the preseason hype and runs the table the way the Avalanche did in 2021-22. And to do it, they slayed the two-time defending champion Lightning in clinical fashion with a 2-1 win in Game 6 on Sunday night.

“It feels like disbelief,” Nathan MacKinnon said.

“It feels incredible,” Nazem Kadri said. “There are no words to describe it.”

In some ways, the manner in which the Avs mowed through the gassed Bolts mirrored their regular season. Whenever they were questioned, whenever push came to shove, the Avalanche put their heads down and motored on.

The heavy, preseason favorites stumbled out of the gate with a 4-5-1 record in October. There were rumblings about the job security of coach Jared Bednar, who was operating in the final year of his deal. Sakic squashed them quickly, signing Bednar to a two-year extension in November. And after that, the Avalanche – who went 68-18-6 the rest of the way – won an incredible three out of their next four games, up to and including Sunday’s clincher.

They had a .740 winning percentage (not points percentage!) after that sluggish start. In the end, the Avalanche recorded 72 wins, tied for the most ever between the regular season and playoffs with the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens, 1983-84 Edmonton Oilers and 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings. Of course, none of those three teams had the benefit of the shootout, but that doesn’t take away from Colorado’s accomplishment.

“They stuck together,” Sakic said. “They didn’t let anything bother them. And there were stretches where they could let things bother them, and every day, they just got up. Something would happen and they put it behind them. 

“The entire playoffs, if we didn’t have a great game, they forgot about it. They didn’t dwell on it. They believed in each other so much and they’re rewarded now. They’re Stanley Cup champions and they’re going to be championships forever and together.”

The Avalanche never trailed in a playoff series. For a team that didn’t ice a healthy lineup until Game 1 of the playoffs, the only adversity they truly faced was in ghosts of playoffs past.

Perhaps Gabriel Landeskog oversimplified it a bit when he said postgame that the secret to success was “getting a bunch of Cales” as in Cale Makar, the first unanimous winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP since the Professional Hockey Writers Association began published tabulations five seasons ago.

Sakic concocted the perfect combination of core players that made it through to the other side after a god-awful 2016-17 rebuild, a collection of young talent, and the right complementary pieces in trade deadline additions of Artturi Lehkonen, Andrew Cogliano, Josh Manson and Niko Sturm. Lehkonen netted the Cup clinching goal in the second period.

There may never be a team quite like the Avalanche again in the salary cap era, one that took full advantage of star players like MacKinnon in their prime on bargain contracts, which left plenty of room for others. MacKinnon would probably trade the dollars for a ring any day.

“I’m forever grateful to go through it with these warriors. The guys we got at the deadline. The young guys we brought in. It was a perfect mix,” MacKinnon said.

There were a few memorable moments along the way, from Kadri’s stunning overtime winner in Game 4 that set Colorado on a collision course with the Cup, to MacKinnon’s heroic hat trick in Game 5 in the second round against St. Louis. Oh, yeah, and there was MacKinnon scooping a hobbled Landeskog into the bench in the waning seconds of the clincher, the perfect visual for a team with speed and skill to burn that was also more than willing to pay the price to win.

“That’s the type of team we had,” Sakic said. “They stuck up for each other all year. They had each other’s back.”

They also stuck up for their goaltender, Darcy Kuemper, who made a couple clutch third period saves to quell the nerves and preserve the victory. Kuemper entered the night with an .899 save percentage, one that eked up to .902 at the end of the night, but still the worst mark of any Cup-winning netminder in 45 years.

If that doesn’t tell the story of the Avs’ dominance, the team that averaged nearly four and a half goals per game in the playoffs, then it was the looks on the faces of their opponent. The Lightning had been to the top of the mountain twice previously, won 11 series in a row, and refused to go quietly in the Stanley Cup Final.

They were dethroned – by the new standard. Avalanche owner Stan Kroenke said that players were skating up to him saying: “This is amazing, let’s do it again.” The Avs going to have all of the ammunition to try to create their own dynasty, after now establishing their own legacy.

“That’s who we’re trying to be,” Sakic said of the Lightning. “You know, everyone wants to be the champion. To have the opportunity to play them in the Final and knock off the champs, I think it’s even more special for this group.”

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