Championship To Denver

For the third time in the history of the franchise and for the first time in twenty one years, the Stanley Cup now takes residence in Denver Colorado. The Colorado Avalanche claimed their third title in franchise history, beating the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games to claim the title. Colorado had been the best team in the Western Conference all season long, and now they have a title to show for it.

For Colorado, this has been a long time coming. They haven't won a title since 2001, and this is the deepest the Avs have gone since that title run. its been brewing in Denver the last couple of seasons too. They last missed the playoffs in 2017, the year in which they managed just 22 wins. But from that point on, it was off to the races for the Avs, who made the playoffs every year since. They had made it to at least round two in each of the last three seasons but finally got over the hump, if you will, this year and really finding their stride as a team. There had been some concern the last few years as to whether or not Colorado could do this. Given the fact that the Avs hadn't gotten out of the 2nd rounds since 2002, it leads to a lot of questions. Those were answered as the Avs marched through the playoffs like a team on a mission.

Colorado lead the Western Conference from wire to wire, with Mikko Rantanen leading the team in goals and points and Nazim Kadri leading the way in assists. Colorado had been a club built on speed and solid defense.

Cal Makar was great on the back end this season, which finished with him winning the Norris trophy as the leagues top defender, and the Conn Smyth trophy as MVP of the playoffs. He scored 29 points in the post season, after finishing with  86 during the regular season, which was good for 4th on the team. Makar showed the rest of the hockey world what Colorado has known all along. This kid is one of the top ten blue liners in all of the game today.

What made this team so good is that they never let up from wire to wire. They kept their foot on the gas from the beginning of the year and it never stopped until the Cup was in their position.

Nothing at all to take away from what their opponents, the Tampa Bay Lightning, have done the last few seasons. The Bolts had come into this finals as the two time defending champions and had won 11 straight payoff series coming in. And, after it was announced today, all the injuries that the Lightning had been fighting through just to even get to this point. It is just scratching the surface of what truly made this Tampa team so special but boy have they been good and have been playing great hockey on the run that they had. Can't take anything away from what the Bolts have done.

Now that the dust has settled, Lord Stanley has a new home. It resides in Denver, Colorado. Congratulations to the Avalanche on winning their third Cup in franchise history