Colorado Avalanche dethrone Lightning
TAMPA, Fla. — Nathan Mackinnon
could not find the words. Gabriel Landeskog cracked a smile and a joke.
After years of playoff disappointments, the Colorado Avalanche are back atop
hockey’s mountain after dethroning the two-time defending champions.
Behind a goal and an assist from Mackinnon, the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup for the third time in franchise history and first in more than two
decades by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Game 6 of the final Sunday night.
“It’s just been building over time,” playoff Mvp-winning defenseman Cale Makar said about the Avalanche’s journey. “I’ve been here only three years. A couple
of tough exits in the playoffs. It was just all leading up to this.”
It’s the first title for the Avs’ core group led by Mackinnon, captain Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen and Makar, and it follows several
early postseason exits — in the second round
each of the past three
seasons and the first round in 2018. The 2016-17 team was the worst in hockey, finishing with just 48 points.
“It’s hard to describe,” said Mackinnon, who led the way in the clincher by blocking
shots and taking big hits in addition to his offensive production. “Some tough years
mixed in there, but it’s all over now. We never stopped believing.”
With a mix of speed,
high-end talent and the experience gained from those defeats, Colorado broke through this time —
earning every bit of the championship by knocking off a deep and gritty team that
hoisted the Cup the past two years.
“To beat them is probably a little more
satisfying, to be honest, because they are champions,” said veteran forward Andrew Cogliano, who hoisted
the Cup for the first
time at age 35. “They
know how to win. And, ultimately, when you can beat the champions, you know you really earned it.”
Like the Avalanche fully expected, it wasn’t easy.
An early turnover by Makar led to an easy goal by Steven Stamkos, putting Colorado in a hole and several more bumps and
bruises followed. The Avalanche tied it when Mackinnon beat 2021
playoff MVP Andrei
Vasilevskiy with a
near-perfect shot and went ahead on another big goal by trade deadline acquisition Artturi Lehkonen. They locked things
down by holding on to the puck and held Tampa Bay without a
shot on Darcy Kuemper until midway through the third period. When the Lightning finally did, he was there. Brought in from Arizona in a trade last summer to
shore up the sport’s
most important position, Kuemper was
solid again and made his most important
save with under seven minutes left when he
slid over to deny star Nikita Kucherov.
His teammates finished the job and Colorado improved to 9-1 on the road this postseason.
Much like the Lightning went all in multiple times by trading
high draft picks and prospects to load up for the best chance to win the Cup, Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic was not afraid to ante up in March to acquire Lehkonen, defenseman Josh Manson and Cogliano. They became the perfect complement to Colorado’s core that had showed plenty of playoff promise but until now
hadn’t produced a championship.
Sakic, who captained Colorado’s first two title-winning teams in 1996 and 2001, used a familiar recipe to get his team
over the hump. Much like Pierre Lacroix, the
architect of those Ava
lanche teams that had
so much success after the organization
moved to Denver, Sakic prioritized skill, speed and versatility.
That speed overwhelmed every opponent on the way to the final, from an opening
sweep of Nashville through a hard-fought,
six-game series against St. Louis and another sweep of Edmonton. It was a different challenge
against Tampa Bay, when the Avalanche
needed to absorb counter-punches from the back-to-back champs to close it out.
Tampa Bay ended up two victories short
of becoming the NHL’S first three-peat champion since the
early 1980s New York Islanders dynasty.
“It stings just as much as the firs time,”
Stamkos said, referring to the Lightning’s loss to Chicago in the 2015 final.
Before the series, Makar said he and his teammates were trying to end a dynasty and begin a legacy. That legacy finally involves a championship, thanks in large part to steady coach Jared Bednar, who in
his sixth season f ound a way to focus his team on the mission at hand from the start of training camp. Bednar became the first coach to win the
Stanley Cup, American Hockey League’s Calder Cup and ECHL’S Kelly Cup —
all after that miserable 48-point showing in
his first season behind the Colorado bench.
“He stuck with it, also,” Rantanen said. “He had a tough first year in the league, and I did, too. I can’t believe we’re here six years after.”
Bednar won the chess match with Jon Cooper, also a Stanley
and Calder Cup champion who is considered one of the best tacticians in the NHL. The Lightning fell into an 0-2 hole facing their stiffest competition since their run of success began in 2020 and then went down 3-1 before forcing Game 6.
Asked how other teams might be able to copy the Avalanche’s
success, Landeskog quipped, “Get a Cale Makar somewhere.” Indeed, Makar won
the Conn Smythe after leading Colorado in
scoring with 29 points in 20 games. Injuries that sidelined top center Brayden Point and limited other key contributors proved too much against a stacked opponent.
Depth allowed the Avalanche to overcome losing defenseman Samuel Girard to a broken sternum and finish off the Lightning even with standout forward Andre Burakovsky sidelined by injury and with Valeri Nichushkin hobbling around
on an injured right foot and center Nazem Kadri playing through a broken right thumb.
The Avalanche beat the Lightning before
attrition could take too much of a toll and before the scary possibility of facing elimination in Game 7 against Vasilevskiy. Instead, they’ll return
to Denver to celebrate with the Stanley Cup. A parade is expected on Thursday.
While not as emotional as the past two years when Stamkos got the trophy, Colorado’s series-ending victory marks another completion of an NHL
season during a pandemic — the first back to 82 games with a normal playoff format
since 2019. It was not without its stumbles,
including postponing dozens of games and pulling out of the Olympics. Commissioner Gary Bettman wasn’t even able to
hand the Cup to Landeskog because he tested positive for the
coronavirus, leaving deputy Bill Daly to do the honors.
The Avalanche and Lightning dealt with
occasional rough ice playing late into June,
something that should not happen again as the league gets back to
its regular schedule. When that happens, Colorado will get the chance to defend its crown and attempt to follow Tampa Bay in
becoming a perennial Cup contender.