For the winning team, the Vegas Golden Knights, its sets the bar so high for new teams in sports. For the losing team, the Colorado Avalanche, it speaks volumes to the curse or whatever you want to call it, for winning the Presidents Trophy.
The most obvious one is what we going to dive into first, and that is the fact that for the third time in the nine-year existence of the Vegas franchise, they are playing in the Stanley Cup Finals. This is a huge accomplishment for two reasons. First is the way this year has gone. The pacific Division in the West as a whole this year seemed the weakest of the other three in the league. And let's be real, they were huge underdogs to Colorado, or for that matter whoever was going to come out of that side of the bracket. Going into the playoffs, three of the teams that came out of the Central were the favorites, be it Colorado, Dallas, and even Minnesota. The Pacific had two 40 plus win teams and neither of them got out of round two, that being Anaheim (who was a surprise in its own right) and Edmonton. Vegas went in and beat them up in the first two series.
Then once the Conference Finals got started, they looked like a team on a mission. Sure, Colorado had injuries, more on that in a bit, but Vegas stuck to their game and are back in the Finals. Vegas has quickly started to establish themselves as a force in the West. Three trips to the Finals in nine years?!?!? That comes down to the way ownership and upper management has built this team to be a contender and stay that way. Good drafts, making the right trades at the right times, and being able to keep that group together. They aren't quite an elite level franchise in this league just yet, but the level of success they have attained in their first ten years in the league is quite impressive. They've only missed the playoffs once, and in the other nine seasons have failed to get out of the first round just twice. That's eye-popping stats to think about and speaks volumes about how the team is built and run.
From the side of the coin, the Colorado Avalanche have some things to be able to look at this offseason. With the year that Colorado had, coming this far, while a great accomplishment, is a letdown. There was supposed to be a finals appearance at least for this team, instead it ends like this. A whimper in the Western Conference Finals. Yes, there were injuries that may have played a factor. Cale Makar missed the first two games due to injury and that looked like it played a major factor for Colorado. They couldn't recover and find their legs at all in the series from that.
The other storyline from this is the impact of the President's Trophy. It doesn't mean a damn thing. No President's Trophy winner has had success in the last thirteen years. Meaning that the last team that finished the regular season with the best record to make it to the finals was the 2013 Chicago Blackhawks (they also won the Cup that year as well). Yes, it is kind of cool to finish the regular season as the best team in the league. But all of that flies right out of the window once the playoffs start. And its been those teams that don't get the right mojo going once spring hockey starts. This is the time of the year where the hottest teams go the deepest. Colorado was playing fairly well in the first two rounds, but the injuries got them at the wrong time, among other things. And because of that it's going to lead to some things for Colorado to take a look at during the summer months.
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