The Denver Gazette

Never a doubt for these Avs, who stand above the rest

PAUL KLEE The Denver Gazette

Never a doubt.

The Colorado Avalanche are Stanley Cup champions — and they left no doubt.

Colorado’s third Stanley Cup title arrived Sunday night at Tampa’s Amalie Arena in a 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Avs clinched the series 4-2 with a 10th comeback win, tying the playoffs record.

Raise the Cup, raise the banner. Raise a glass like you did in 1996 and 2001, way back when we were young. The Stanley Cup banner that for years has seemed like a when, not an if, finally will go into the rafters at Ball Arena.

Gabe. Nate. Cale. Mikko. Naz. They are one-name guys now, Colorado legends set in stone.

The championship parade is Thursday in downtown Denver. Burgundy is back, baby.

“When the buzzer went (off) there was almost disbelief when we got the job done,” coach Jared Bednar said after.

The disbelief would have been these Avs not winning the Cup.

They were so much better than everyone else.

In terms of Colorado champs only the 1998 Broncos, who went 17-2, could compare to the 2022 Avs. The Avs were dominant from puck drop to final horn in the playoffs, 16-4, one shy of the record for fewest losses in a Stanley Cup run. Wayne Gretzky’s Oilers lost three games in 1988. Elite company.

The only doubt in the Cup final came from who they were up against and who was in goal.

The Lightning were two-time defending champs with Cup hero Andrei Vasilevskiy heating up.

In the second period, Nathan MacKinnon put an end to that mess with a laser one-timer off an assist from Mikko Rantanen. Same period, Arturri Lehkonen added the game-winner. One goal from a long-timer, one from a new guy.

Gabe raised the Cup first. Anointed team captain at age 19, the youngest in league history, Landeskog stayed classy through some seriously rough times at the rink.

His toughest gig may have been as team spokesman during the 48-point disaster in 2016-17 season, when the Avs set all the wrong kinds of records.

“Landy” hoisted the Cup, bellowed “Let’s gooo!” and handed the hardware over to Erik Johnson.

“This group is just amazing,” Landeskog said.

And how would an aspiring team go about copying these Avalanche?

“Find a Cale Makar somewhere,” Landeskog said on the ABC broadcast.

Makar was awarded the Conn Smythe trophy as the postseason’s best player. He now has the Hobey Baker (college hockey’s top player), Calder (NHL rookie of the year), Norris (top defenseman), Conn Smythe and Stanley Cup in his collection. Makar is 23, and a playoff beard remains out of the question.

“You grow up and you see that (Cup) as a kid and you have pictures on your wall,” Makar said.

Only five years ago, the Avs finished as the NHL’s worst team.

Yet general manager Joe Sakic had no doubt the core of his outfit was good enough to win the toughest trophy in sports. Truth is, the Avs made it look easy.

They won 72 games between the regular season and postseason, tying the record.

The Avs sealed the deal as the biggest betting favorites since the Red Wings in 2002.

They flashed a second gear no opponent could keep up with.

The Avs clinched all four playoff series with a comeback win.

They never had a doubt.

Trust in Joe.

Sakic became the first general manager to win the Stanley Cup with the same team he won it with as a player. He had chances to move on from a bunch of these champs, from Landeskog to Bednar, but trusted his instinct they were, in fact, great enough to win it all.

Sakic somehow combined patience with aggressiveness, sticking with the talented core over years of building and bummers while still adding four players at this season’s trade deadline. The perfect combo.

“Yeah we had the worst record. But we had some really good young players who were just about to become stars,” said Sakic, who tied the Broncos’ John Elway with two titles here as a player, one as the GM.

Add 2022 to 1996 and 2001 — all beautiful in their own way. But isn’t there something special when it takes a while, when the journey was not so easy?

The Avs’ first Stanley Cup was in their first year.

This one was 21 years in the making. “We never stopped believing,” MacKinnon said.

Was there ever a doubt?

Not with these Avs. Not with this juggernaut.

Their Stanley Cup was a matter of when, not if.

AVALANCHE 2022 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS

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2022-06-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.denvergazette.com/article/281964611404461

The Gazette, Colorado Springs