The Colorado Avalanche capitalized on a tall 2019 season pushing San Jose to seven games in round two of the NHL playoffs and may have opened a window for many years to come.
Will Satler | wsatler@msudenver.edu | May 9, 2019
BRIGHTON, COLO. (CO) — As quickly as a window can open, a team’s window for a championship can close.
And if John Elway doesn’t believe in windows, then the Avs don’t believe in ceilings because they busted right through theirs for the 2019 season.
Enough with the odd household, sports metaphors.
Colorado’s quest for Lord Stanley came to an end Wednesday night as the San Jose Sharks swarmed early and never looked back for a 3-2 win in game seven. San Jose rode the momentum of the return of captain Joe Pavelski, who had a goal and an assist in the first period.
“Our season is over,” coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s tough. We set high expectations for ourselves, and we came up a little bit short. … Our guys worked every day to try to fulfill our expectations. It was a real good series, but they were the better team for too big a portion of tonight’s game, and they won, and they deserved to win.”
This was never Colorado’s series to win, and they never should have even smelt the playoffs, after their disappointing stretch run, losing 18 out of 20 games through February, including eight in a row.
It could have oddly been the absence of two key players, captain Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen. Phillipp Grubauer’s rise to dominating between the pipes could have been the case too.
The Avalanche would win eight out of ten to finish the season and sneak into the eighth playoff spot in the West. In the year of the Wild Card, where not a single wild card team lost in the first round, the Avs upset the top-seeded Calgary Flames in round one serving as the second biggest upset in the NHL. How’s it going over there, Columbus?
They took a Sharks team that finished 3rd in the West to seven games and had a valid argument that an overturned goal in the 2nd period on an offsides call altered their chances at a spot in the Western Conference final.
But this team had already broken through their ceiling, and they were just playing with house money now, opening a window, nice and wide for the entire NHL to see.
“I’m going to look back at it as a great season with a lot of ups and down. The way we battled the last month of the season and this playoff, I’m really proud of the group we have. We were counted out numerous times, but as a group, we believed, and it was a big step for this organization,” the Avs’ captain said after Wednesday’s game.
The time for Colorado to win a Stanley (or multiple don’t cha say?) is now, and it could never be more apparent. What better time was it for Homey Baker winner and Avalanche offensive defenseman sensation Cale Makar to break into the scene and steal the heart of the fans of the burgundy, white and blue?
The Avs are in the NHL’s driver’s seat, coming off back-to-back playoff runs and hold a plethora of prospects as well as this year’s 4th overall pick in the entry draft.
Colorado’s core of Nathan MacKinnon, Landeskog, Grubauer, and now Makar, are locked up for years to come under relatively team-friendly deals. Tyson Jost, Samuel Girard, and Colin Wilson all showed great promise in this team’s playoff run and look to be key parts of future playoff runs.
There are some things head coach Jared Bednar and Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations, Joe Sakic need to clear up this offseason like returning restricted free-agent Mikko Rantanen and drafting at number four in the entry draft.
Another thing that could effect the Avalanche’s window is the 2020 expansion draft that looms with the addition of a NHL team in Seattle in just a season. The Vegas Golden Knights swooped their riches two years ago in the NHL’s most recent expansion draft, riding the polished players they received to the Stanley Cup Final in year one and to push their first round series in 2019 to seven games.
Sakic and Co. made a splash last offseason acquiring Grubauer for the defending-champs in Washington, so look for him to make a similar power move unlike the team down the street in Denver.
There were many storylines and questions swirling around this team before and throughout the season but none bigger than whether this team’s future is bright. They did more than answer that in the moves they made in late April and sit primed for a strong 2020 season.
Avalanche fans will come to terms and shave their playoff beards soon as their intense playoff run has ended, but there is no question that they’ll be growing their beards for many May’s to come.
Time to focus on those Nuggets, baby.
Will Satler 