Avalanche Make the Stanley Cup Finals!!
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For the first time since 2001, the Colorado Avalanche are officially in the Finals and currently waiting for the conclusion of the Eastern Conference Finals to know their opponent. They will face either the New York Rangers or the back-to-back defending champion Tampa Bay Lighting for the right to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup before the end of the month. This will be an exciting series either way and will add another unique opponent to the Avs championship case, as the Avs defeated the Florida Panthers in 1996-97 and then the New Jersey Devils in 2001.
The Avs have been spectacular this post season sweeping the first round against the Predators, finally getting out of the second round beating the St. Louis Blues in six games, and the completing the sweep against the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Finals. The series against the Oilers saw Nazem Kadri go down with a thumb injury that required surgery, starting goalie Darcy Kuemper would pull himself from a game after a 97-MPH slapshot bounced off his facemask blurring his vision and challenging his ability to see the puck, and Andrew Cogliano would go out with a similar thumb injury to Kadri.
This time off between the WCF and the SCF has given the Avalanche a chance to rest, get healthy and be in a great position to take the Cup for themselves. Darcy Kuemper is reportedly 100% and is expected to take his place back as the starting goalie. Pavel Francouz is on an absolute tear going 6-0 in his six games this post season, including a shutout in game two in Denver. That being said, Jared Bednar all season has stuck to his guns that Darcy Kuemper is the starting goalie and that if he is healthy, he will be in net. What an absolute luxury to have such a high caliber backup goalie that you can depend on to get wins if the starter goes out though, my hat is tipped to the relief job Pavel Francouz has done this post season.
Reports are that Naz Kadri is recovering nicely from surgery, he’s working out in the gym, and speculation is that Kadri will play in the Stanley Cup Finals. This would be excellent news, considering 5 days ago he was ruled out for the remainder of the Oilers series and announced he needed surgery to fix the damaged thumb. The fact that he underwent surgery and could be able to play professional hockey, in the most important games of his career, less than 13 days later, is a testament to his will, toughness and modern medicine. This team will be so glad they were able to get this rest time to afford Kadri the necessary time to get healthy and return to the lineup.
Andrew Cogliano is recovering from a similar injury and is lagging slightly behind Kadri, but the reports as of this morning are that he will likely be ready for game one either June 15th or the 18th depending on who wins the game tonight. If the Rangers take game six and force a decisive game seven, the Finals will start June 18th, but if the Lightning close out the series tonight, the Finals will start June 15th.
The Avalanche have done everything right this post season, they were able to take care of business in the first round, get the monkey off their backs in the second round, sweep their way to the finals in a series that the Oilers were trying to make ugly. The Avalanche had an aura about them in the WCF where they were almost completely of the mind set “get the win and get out of here”. We routinely saw the boys being victims of ugly hits, unsportsmanlike after the whistle nonsense, and the Oilers showing time and time again they needed to get in the Avs heads to win the series and the Avs simply didn’t let them. The mental toughness combined with the elite one the ice hockey this team has displayed has brought up the question, is this team better than the 2001 Stanley Cup winner squad?
You be the judge:
Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Milan Hejduk, Alex Tanguay, Chris Drury, Adam Deadmarsh, Adam Foote, Rob Blake, Ray Bourque, Patrick Roy
Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen, Nazem Kadri, Cale Makar, Devon Toews, Erik Johnson, Val Nichushkin, Andre Burakovsky with all the up-and-coming talent like Alex Newhook, Bowen Byram and Arturri Lekhonen and keeper Darcy Kuemper.
This all being said, I think Cale Makar on Scott Van Pelt said it best, the job isn’t done, they must value the rest and recovery time they are getting, but also be ready to pop the competition in the mouth game one and the not come out stagnant and flat. There is a delicate balance between staying in the right mind set while not playing hockey and allowing yourself to rest and recover. They team seems to be aware and has that laser focus to come out and get the job done once the finals begin.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ColoradoAvalanche/comments/v8ieef/makar_was_on_svp_2_nights_ago_heres_his_segment/https://twitter.com/NHL/status/1535261760353144837?s=20&t=RrneBknQWWSraZ8Zj4f37Q
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