Avalanche Season Book Preview

AVALANCHE SEASON The Colorado Avalanche’s 2022 Stanley Cup Championship Season

Credits

Bill Reynolds, general manager, senior vice president, circulation and operations Lee Ann Colacioppo, editor Scott Monserud, assistant managing editor/sports Matt Schubert, deputy sports editor Lori Punko, deputy sports editor Mike Chambers, staff writer Ryan O’Halloran, staff writer Kyle Fredrickson, staff writer Mark Kiszla, sports columnist Sean Keeler, sports columnist Patrick Traylor, senior editor/photography and multimedia Katie Rausch, deputy director of photography Eric Lutzens, multimedia editor Andy Cross, staff photographer AAron Ontiveroz, staff photographer ON THE COVER: Colorado Avalanche Gabriel Landeskog

celebrates with the Stanley Cup after Colorado’s 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena in Tampa on June 26, 2022. The Avalanche defeated the lightning 4-2 in the best-of-seven series to clinch the third Stanley Cup title in franchise history. A ARON ONTIVEROZ / THE DENVER POST Copyright © 2022 by The Denver Post All Rights Reserved • ISBN: 978-1-63846-037-4 No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owner or the publisher.

Published by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. • www.pediment.com • Printed in Canada.

This book is an unofficial account of the Colorado Avalanche’s 2021–22 season and is not endorsed by the NHL or the Colorado Avalanche.

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Table of Contents Preseason ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5 Regular Season �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������15 First Round ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 69 Second Round ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 85 Western Conference Finals ��������������������������������������������� 111 Stanley Cup Final ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 135 Parade �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 169

LEFT: Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog holds the Stanley Cup above his head

as he walks off the plane with his teammates at Denver International Airport on June 27, 2022. The Colorado Avalanche arrived back from Florida after beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Game 6 and 4-2 in the series to win the Stanley Cup Final.

H ELEN H. RICHARDSON / THE DENVER POST OPPOSITE: Fans show their love during a watch party for Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final at the Auraria Campus in Downtown Denver on June 22, 2022.

A ARON ONTIVEROZ / THE DENVER POST

INTRODUCTION • 3

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PRESEASON

Jared Bednar is on his own hot seat.

Avalanche coach feels internal pressure

BY MIKE CHAMBERS • THE DENVER POST • SEPT. 25, 2021

Avalanche coach Jared Bednar wants to do like Jon Cooper.

Bednar wants to go from the proverbial pressure cooker to a multiple Stanley Cup champion.

In 2018–19, the Tampa Bay Lightning won the President’s Trophy as the NHL’s regular-season champion before getting swept in the first round of the playoffs.

Cooper, a sixth-year head coach at the time, was retained while many wanted him fired.

Cooper then led Tampa Bay to back-toback championships.

“I’ve talked to Jon Cooper at length,” said Bednar, who is beginning his sixth season with the Avs. In other words, Bednar has picked Cooper’s brain about how to get a championship-caliber team over the hump. He’s tried to understand what he could have done better to beat San Jose in Game 7 in 2019, beat Dallas in Game 7 in 2020 and avoid an 0-4 meltdown in June to lose to Vegas in six games.

Colorado, the 2021 President’s Trophy

winner, has failed to get out of the second round of the playoffs for three consecutive years. And if it happens again — or the team falls apart in the regular season — Bednar realizes he will likely lose his job.

“No one’s going to put more pressure on me than I do, because I see how committed our guys are, how bad they want it,” he said from training camp.

The Avalanche is again the odds-on favorite to win the Stanley Cup, followed

by Tampa Bay, Vegas, Boston and Toronto. The pressure is indeed on Bednar and his staff to get the talented and playoff-experienced roster playing its best when it counts the most.

“I felt it the first time we lost in the second round,” Bednar said of pressure.

“I’m a realist. I like to look at things as objectively as I can. We did a heck of a job getting into the second-round Game 7 that year we lost to San Jose. Two years ago we lost to Dallas — I loved our team.

I think we ran into some injury issues in that second round that really hurt us — two goalies, Landy, EJ, guys we rely

heavily on, and we lost.”

And what happened this past June?

“There’s absolutely no excuses,” Bednar said. “I wasn’t making excuses after the time we lost to San Jose. I wasn’t making them after Dallas. It just is what it is. One of my friends said, ‘That’s just the hockey gods, seeing how bad you want it.’ And I believe that. Nothing comes easy.”

If you can learn from it and plan accordingly. Bednar will do just. Based on the circumstances, he’s the right person to bring the Stanley Cup back to Colorado.

“I’m excited about this season as I’ve been for all the others, just because you know we’re dug in now as a group. We’ve got our core group,” Bednar said. “There’s an excitement with every new season, especially when you have a team that you feel can contend and we’ve felt that way for a couple of years now.

“We’ve been improving in the regular season. We got to get over the hump in the playoffs. But it’s the motivation for myself, for the group. It’s making us hungrier,

making us more resilient. Like anything in life, once you start it, you like to finish it. My goal here is to try to bring the Cup back to Colorado and keep trying to do whatever we can do to make that happen.

I’m excited to still be here and I’m proud to be part of this team and proud of what we’ve accomplished to this point. We certainly have more to accomplish.”

For Avalanche forward Tyson Jost, some of Bednar’s video sessions during training camp have ignited fires beneath him and his teammates. The clips about what went wrong against Vegas are depressing but compelling.

“I don’t think you ever really get over it,” Jost said of blowing a 2-0 series lead and losing the final four games. “It definitely still stings when you’re watching video and doing meetings and stuff like that, and clips from those games come up and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ It (stinks) for sure.

“It’s something that sticks with you throughout the whole summer and it definitely fuels you when you’re training.”

OPPOSITE: Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar on the bench during the game against the Los Angeles Kings on May 12, 2021. A NDY CROSS / THE DENVER POST PRESEASON • 5

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STANLEY CUP FINAL • GAME 6

JUNE 26, 2022 • VS TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING • W 2-1

Colorado Avalanche beats Tampa Bay in Game 6 to win Stanley Cup The Avs scored two second-period goals to win their first title in 21 years

BY RYAN O’HALLORAN • THE DENVER POST

TAMPA, Fla. — When it was all over and the Avalanche had completed its climb from worst team in the NHL to Stanley Cup winners, captain Gabe Landeskog gathered the remaining players from the 2016–17 team for a group photo.

Landeskog. Nathan MacKinnon. Erik Johnson. Mikko Rantanen. J.T. Compher.

“The guys from the 48-point season!”

Landeskog said on the Amalie Arena ice.

Those guys are now champions.

Those guys are now part of Denver sports history.

Those guys have overcome the heartbreak of previous playoff disappointment to lift the most beautiful trophy in sports and the most difficult to win.

The Avalanche completed a dominant postseason late Sunday night with a 2-1 Game 6 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, getting second-period goals from MacKinnon and Artturi Lehkonen and then playing one of the best championship-clinching third periods possible.

Believe it, Denver.

Savor it, Denver.

Enjoy it, Denver.

The Avalanche’s 10th come-from-behind win of the playoffs, which tied an NHL record, was arguably their most impressive.

Forty-eight hours after squandering a chance to clinch the Cup on home ice and trigger pandemonium at Ball Arena, the Avs calmly came into Tampa, believed in their game, were confident in bouncing back and ended the Lightning’s two-year championship run.

“These guys inside the locker room and inside the organization have put in so much hard work and I’m just so happy and so proud to see these champions skating around the ice,” said Landeskog, who became only the fourth Europeanborn captain to receive the Cup, joining Zdeno Chara (Boston), Alex Ovechkin (Washington) and fellow Swede Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroit).

A positive COVID-19 test meant commissioner Gary Bettman didn’t lead the post-game ceremonies, so it was deputy commissioner Bill Daly who presented defenseman Cale Makar the Conn Smythe

Trophy for the playoffs’ most valuable player (he received all 18 votes) and then handed the Cup to Landeskog.

Landeskog’s first hand-off was appropriate — to defenseman Erik Johnson, who is the longest-tenured Avs player. From there, it went to winger Andrew Cogliano, MacKinnon, defenseman Jack Johnson, center Nazem Kadri, winger Andre Burakovsky, Rantanen, center Darren Helm, defenseman Devon Toews and every other player who dressed and didn’t dress for Game 6.

Soon after, families and friends of the players and coaches were allowed to join them on the ice surface for nearly an hour of hugs and pictures.

The Avalanche’s postseason was a tour de force of skill (MacKinnon and Makar leading the way) and grit (untold contributions from players who weren’t even in the lineup when the playoffs began last month).

The Avs never trailed in a series. They never lost consecutive games. They went 16-4 (tied for second-best record in the best-of-seven era). They went 9-1 on the

OPPOSITE: Colorado Avalanche left wing Artturi Lehkonen (62) shoots and scores a goal on Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) in the second period during Game 6 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final at Amalie Arena, June 26, 2022. Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak (81) defends on the play.

ANDY CROSS / THE DENVER POST

STANLEY CUP FINAL • 161

ABOVE: Tampa Bay Lightning center

Steven Stamkos (91) celebrates his game-opening goal with Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Ondrej Palat (18) in the first period.

A NDY CROSS / THE DENVER POST OPPOSITE: Nazem Kadri (91)Bowen Byram (4) and Darcy Kuemper (35) of the Colorado Avalanche vie for control against Riley Nash (16) and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (41) of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first period.

A ARON ONTIVEROZ / THE DENVER POST

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road. They were 5-1 in overtime (including 2-0 in the Final). They were 6-1 in one-goal games. And they 4-2 in close-out games.

Everybody was required to outlast the Lightning.

Tampa Bay scored first for the third consecutive game when a rare Makar turnover in his zone led to Steven Stamkos’ goal through the five-hole of goalie Darcy Kuemper.

Just 1:54 into the second, the Avalanche tied it on MacKinnon’s 13th of the playoffs.

Skating 6-on-5 because of a delayed Lightning penalty, Landeskog passed center point to defenseman Bo Byram, who fed it to MacKinnon for the one-timer from the circle that beat goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy to the blocker side.

At the 12:38 mark of the second, MacKinnon skated up the middle of the

Lightning zone and his pass attempt to defenseman Josh Manson on his right went off defenseman Erik Cernak and bounded left to Artturi Lehkonen, whose quick snap shot beat Vasilevskiy to the high glove side.

How fitting that MacKinnon was involved in both goals of a Cup-clinching win. He had to wear the pressure of second-round losses the previous two years to Dallas and Vegas.

MacKinnon has now joined a distinguished group of top overall picks-turnedCup champions that includes Stamkos, Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, among others.

“It’s hard to describe, honestly,” MacKinnon said. “The best part is sharing it with my teammates and my brothers.”

Not hard to describe was how the Avalanche protected the one-goal lead for the final period-plus.

Tampa Bay had no shots on goal for the first 10 minutes of the third period and only four for the final 20 minutes.

“It was one of our best periods of the year,” said Kuemper, who had 22 saves.

“We talked about it in the intermission about keeping our foot on the gas and keep taking it to them and that’s what we did.”

The back-breaking third goal eluded the Avs, though, creating high drama in the final two minutes when the Lightning pulled Vasilevskiy.

Landeskog blocked a shot and literally crawled off the ice ahead of a stoppage with 1:15 left. Kuemper made a save through traffic with 1:10 left. And MacKinnon cleared the puck down the ice with 25 seconds.

At 10:48 p.m. local time, the Avs were champions.

The mob scene behind the Avs’ goal

included every player who threw each of their sticks, gloves and helmets into the air. During the hand-shake line, which was led by Landeskog, Lightning coach Jon Cooper was gracious in defeat, sharing moments with Makar, Kuemper, Kadri and both Erik and Jack Johnson before a long conversation with Bednar.

“It was a lot of relief,” Bednar said. “I was in disbelief for a while. Guys were already on the ice and it takes a moment or two for it to sink in. It’s just hard to believe because we’ve been working for this for six years and on a journey with these guys and building the team.

“And then there is a sense of satisfaction.”

As there should be, Jared.

The Avalanche’s climb to the top of the NHL was literally terrible-to-terrific. In the 2016–17 season, Bednar was a rookie coach and his roster was young and not yet ready to win. The Avs won only 22 of 82 games and suffered six losing streaks of at least five games. General manager Joe Sakic, though, did not panic, choosing to stick with Bednar in the view he would grow along with his roster. Sakic was right.

June 26, 2022 joined June 10, 1996 and June 9, 2001 as Avalanche championship-winning dates. The Avs became only the fourth Cup champion since 1968 to win all four of their series on road ice.

During the first two titles, it was Sakic who received the Cup from Bettman.

As the Cup was paraded around the ice by his players, Sakic beamed with pride.

The journey was complete.

“Sometimes you need to go through tough times to eventually have this,” Sakic said. “It was well worth it. An amazing run by this group.”

STANLEY CUP FINAL • 163

ABOVE: Team captain Gabriel Landeskog (92) hoists the Stanley

Cup after defeating the Tampa Bay Lighting.

ANDY CROSS / THE DENVER POST ABOVE RIGHT: Cale Makar (8) accepts the Conn Smythe Trophy as

the team’s Most Valuable Player.

A ARON ONTIVEROZ / THE DENVER POST RIGHT: Andrew Cogliano (11) hoists the Stanley Cup as teammates

erupt after Stanley Cup Final Game 6 win.

A ARON ONTIVEROZ / THE DENVER POST OPPOSITE: The Colorado Avalanche team photo with the Cup at

Amalie Arena, June 26, 2022. ANDY CROSS / THE DENVER POST

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STANLEY CUP FINAL • 167

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Welcome home, Stanley!

500,000 Avalanche fans raise Cup to the rebirth of Denver

BY MARK KISZLA • THE DENVER POST • JUNE 30, 2022

“This is for you, Denver. We (bleeping) love you!” captain Gabe Landeskog declared to a crowd of 500,000 spilling out of Civic Center Park as rain began to fall on a summer day when the Avalanche marched the Stanley Cup through town.

Nobody loves a victory parade more than Denver. But know what was so cool about this particular Thursday in June? It was a love letter to a city in need of a big hug.

The Avs brought life back to a downtrodden city that has felt abandoned since the outset of COVID-19.

Nathan MacKinnon snuggled a baby to his fuzzy face. Cale Makar ran down the street exchanging high-fives. Artturi Lehkonen drank a toast from his own shoe.

Raise a Cup to the rebirth of Denver, y’all.

“You want a beer?” Tivis Alexander asked me at 8:04 a.m., shortly after he plopped a chair down at a prime spot on the parade route and cranked up “All the Small Things” on his cellphone. “If you’re not a beer guy, I have gin and whiskey in this cooler.”

Nobody goes downtown anymore. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told by doomsayers insisting the best days for Denver are long gone.

Well, I don’t know about all that. But this much is true: The pandemic turned office buildings into ghostly towers. The Wewatta Pavilion, built behind Union Station to protect commuters

from winter snow, became a sad, fertile ground of homeless despair. Littered with needles and populated by rats, barricades went up, shutting down Civic Center Park in 2021.

The Queen City of the Plains became unrecognizable to Colorado natives who love the place, but not enough to risk a ride on light rail into the city from the burbs.

“I don’t like to come downtown, even for a Rockies game. Why? The city scares me,” said 69-year-old Kathy Glivar, lighting a cigarette as she leaned on a walker at the start of the parade route.

The Avs made Glivar fall in love with hockey way back in those giddy glory days of Patrick Roy during the 1990s. From the upper deck of old McNichols Arena, her daughter swooned, dreaming of a marriage proposal from Peter Forsberg.

But on this warm summer morning, Glivar was delighted to be back downtown, accompanied by her grandson. Young Brody Krause was decked out in a Forsberg sweater (in eternal admiration genetically passed along from Mom, no doubt).

Want to know why sports, at their best, are more than fun and games? Hockey can do more than build a tribe united in burgundy and blue. It can help rebuild the vitality of a city “The best part for me is how the Avs let us all have fun for the first time since the pandemic,” Glivar said. “We needed this to

bring the city back to life. Downtown was dead.”

If beating Tampa Bay in six games for the championship wasn’t enough, the Avs created miles of smiles during the parade.

“The alarm clock in my brain went off at 5:45,” said Will Barkoskie, who awoke in Fort Collins as the sun peeked above the horizon.

Barkoskie is 15 years old, freshly relocated to Colorado from Florida. He refuses to let muscular dystrophy or a wheelchair stop him from taking road trips for games of his new favorite team.

“I just became an Avalanche fan this year,” Barkoskie admitted. “The suspense of hockey never stops.”

In a city ready to roar after we were all cooped up by COVID for far too long, the best moments of the parade occurred at the end of the line, when fire trucks carrying the Avs were stuck in gridlock, waiting to be unloaded for the ceremony on the steps of the City and County Building.

On W 13th Ave is where Mikko Rantanen could be found autographing a Teddy Bear tossed to him from the street, while a fan repeatedly beseeched billionaire franchise owner Stan Kroenke to “Throw me all your money!”

If not mistaken, I spied notorious Cupdenter Nic (Unsafe at Any Speed) AubeKubel leap from his perch on a truck in an attempt to commandeer an electric scooter.

OPPOSITE: Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog (92) hoists the Stanley Cup on the steps of the City and County Building for the Avalanche Championship celebration on June 30, 2022.

ANDY CROSS / THE DENVER POST

PARADE • 175

And I’m quite certain when the mother of tiny Silas Forakis, born Feb. 2, loudly requested MacKinnon to “Kiss my baby,” the team’s star center politely refused to pucker up for the health of everyone concerned, but gave a gentle hug video-recorded for posterity by the infant’s proud father.

Five years ago, Colorado was home to the worst team in the NHL. The glorious ascension of the Avs has bolstered the fighting spirit of a city that refuses to quit.

“I can tell you, the city of Denver has grown in the last 21 years,” said front-office honcho Joe Sakic, addressing the crowd gathered in Civic Center Park, from nearly the same spot where he hoisted the Cup as captain of the team in 2001.

“How about this team? Twenty-one long years. But we’re back!”

And if I may paraphrase Landeskog: Look out, world.

Denver is (bleeping) back.

Don’t you love it?

RIGHT: The Stanley Cup on display during

the Colorado Avalanche Stanley Cup Championship celebration at Civic Center Park on June 30, 2022.

A NDY CROSS / THE DENVER POST

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