“I’d probably be lying if I told you I thought we’d be here one day in the 16-17 season.”
Colorado Avalanche captain knows all too well the pain of losing. The 2016-17 seasons will go down as one of the ugliest of the salary cap era, with the Avalanche going 22-56-4 to finish dead last with just 48 points.
There have been worse seasons, but talk about being at the bottom of the barrel.
And now, five seasons later, the Colorado Avalanche are fresh off a sweep of Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, advancing to the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 2001 when current GM Joe Sakic was causing havoc off the ice instead of the trade floor.
Since then, Nathan MacKinnon has become an elite NHLer, the team drafted superstar defenseman Cale Makar, and built a team through trades and free agency that quickly became one of the most dominant in the game.
This is truly what a successful rebuild looks like. And if it all goes their way, it’s going to pay off in the near future.
Containing the Oilers during the post-season was a challenge for Calgary and Los Angeles, and, at one point, the Avs found themselves down 4-2 in the third period of Game 4. But the Avalanche managed to battle through, and after three rounds, they’ve swept two of them and lost just a pair of games to St. Louis.
As the team has shown all post-season long, this group was built with depth in mind, and players like J.T. Compher (three goals), Valeri Nichushkin (two) and Artturi Lehkonen (six points) showed that the team’s management brass made the right moves to set this team up for success. Like, after the deadline, no team screamed “Cup contender” better than the Avalanche, who didn’t sacrifice much of the future to put this lineup together. In Lehkonen’s case, the former Montreal Canadiens forward had three points, highlighted by the game-winner in overtime.
Sakic turned Valeri Nichushkin and Andre Burakovsky into valuable contributors at both ends of the ice, and Nazem Kadri – albeit potentially out for the remainder of the post-season – has become one of Sakic’s most prized trade acquisitions. If it wasn’t for his Game 3 injury, he was seriously putting himself into Conn Smythe territory.
And then there’s that defensive group, perhaps the team’s biggest weakness when Sakic took over. Makar, of course, has been one of the best defensemen in the league since his rookie season. Devon Toews, Bowen Byram and Erik Johnson have all played splendidly, and Josh Manson was another tremendous trade deadline pickup that has paid off in a big way. Heck, even
The fact that the club had to rely on backup Pavel Francouz – only for him to stand tall throughout the series – is a testament to A) how valuable backup goaltenders are and B) how good the team’s support in front of the crease is.
It doesn’t seem to matter who’s on the ice, the Avalanche continue to find ways to win.
While all the talk in the Western Conference final was getting to see some of the biggest stars playing together, you can’t take for granted what this Avalanche team is doing. When we look back 20 years from now, we could be talking about Makar being one of the best defensemen of his generation, and MacKinnon being one of the most dominant, toughest forwards to play against.
And just focusing on those two does a disservice for the wealth of talent this group contains, and they’re just getting started on their journey. You have to lose to truly appreciate a win, and the Avalanche did that the past few seasons. This time, it feels different, and they might be able to take this the distance.
