Colorado will rule the NHL for years, writes Sport NHL journalist Tommi Seppälä of the Colorado Avalanche Championship in Tampa.
TAMPA It didn’t come easily, and it shouldn’t have come. Colorado returned to the NHL’s highest podium for the first time in 21 years early Monday time, when it knocked down Taman Bay Lightning’s 2-1 in the sixth match of the Stanley Cup Final.
Tampa had won the previous two championships.
There was a strong atmosphere of power struggle in the air throughout the final series. Jon Cooperin led by Tampa Bay is the largest hockey team of our time. It has won two Stanley Cups in the previous twelve years, been in the finals three times and reached the conference finals five times.
It was not ready to give up the scepter.
However, Colorado had decided that now power would change. Youthful and extremely hungry, Colorado was constantly a little ahead of the giants in the big picture, but the tired and wounded Tampa didn’t give up – it showed its greatness and stretched the series even when many thought the team was finally broken.
This forced Colorado to grow.
The fact that Tampa came and canceled Friday’s championship in Denver was a treat in the finals. The old and tired master once again demonstrated the importance of mental hardness and experience. Despite all the fatigue and numerous injuries, it played perhaps its best single game for years, given the circumstances.
Colorado was not ready on Friday.
However, the Avalanche did not panic. Rarely have NHL playoffs seen a team with the kind of determination and hunger that exudes Colorado from day to day. Colorado, which had clotted in the second round the previous spring, had no plans to quit until the mission was completed.
Colorado was ready to play a full seven-match series.
In the end, it got what it wanted and completely deserved. It kept Tampa on its hind legs in a series of matches that no other NHL team has been able to do in recent years. Colorado’s speed and skill create a combination to which not even Tampa had an answer. Even in defeat games, Colorado oxidized its opponent so that it could finally pick up ripe fruit.
Its fruit it finally picked.
See all the sixth final goals that led to the championship below.
There is a strong spirit at the beginning of the new era at the championship. The greatest of our time was lost in the reading of the new ruler. In every way, there was an exceptional final series for the two major clubs, demanding more from Colorado than many previous champions – despite the fact that Tampa Bay was more vulnerable this spring than a year back, for example.
Colorado had to go through a tough growth process, but with his victory he got the strength of a overthrown champion.
After all it has experienced, Colorado has raised for itself intellectual capital that is hard to even measure. Three consecutive second-round losses I scratched the soul of the core group with a decent scar. Tampa also teased it to the end. After all, a new champion can be hard to shake in the future.
The coming years are from the Colorado era.
Its squeaky core team is just getting to its best age: Captain Gabriel Landeskog is 29, Nathan MacKinnon 26, Mikko Rantanen 25, Cale Makar 23 and Bowen Byram 21.
At the same time, especially in the East, we are facing a major redistribution. Washington, Pittsburgh, Boston and even Tampa are facing major changes. Many of the experienced and winning veterans on these teams are close to the finish line of their careers. Colorado is all set to be the big dynasty in the NHL for years to come.
Colorado is also an excellently run club.
GM Joe Sakic has done a fantastic job building the team. The members of the core team mentioned above are all the club’s own bookings, but Sakic has also had an excellent eye for player deals. Colorado is a balanced and well-trained team that will still have 26 million oxygen under the payroll next summer. It gets the top team on its feet again.
Colorado only needs a higher quality goalkeeper.
Colorado is a model society of its time. There is no shortcut to happiness in the pay-ceiling age: a club that thirsts for success must be able to build a winning core by reserving. In this respect, it is Colorado and Tampa that have done an incredible amount of work. Landeskog, MacKinnon, Rantanen, Makar and Byram form the monster core forwards.
The core also seems to be exceptionally committed to the company. Superstar MacKinnon is the NHL’s lowest paid player with a € 6.3 million contract. The scariest thing for other clubs is that this has promised to give (you move to another service)the club will also have a discount in its next contract, which will begin in the fall of 2023.
Colorado is facing fat years.