By: Jerry Fan
On Sunday, June 26th, the Colorado Avalanche won the championship, with a score of 4-2 in overtime. This was the first time the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 20 years since 2002.
Heading into the finals, the Avalanche were up against the lion in the jungle. Their competition was the Tampa Bay Lighting, boasting that they were a 2-time defending champion. However, the Avalanche was also stronger than ever this year because they had star center-player Nathan Mackinnon who scored 9 goals and 16 assists during the playoffs. Alongside him, there was Nazem Kadri, who scored the winning overtime goal in game 4, and Norris-Trophy winning defenseman, Cale Makar.
Even after having bad seasons before, this season, they dominated the ice making offensive plays, clean passes, and unstoppable defense. The star center player for the Avalanche, Nathan Mackinnon, said, “But we’ll be ready to go. We’ve been great under pressure all playoffs, all season.” Some examples of their dominance are, according to the New York Times, “in Game 4 of their second-round triumph against St. Louis, Kadri scored a hat trick mere hours after receiving racist death threats from fans for a collision that knocked Blues goalie Jordan Binnington out of the series”. “In another Game 4, on Wednesday, Kadri finished off a sequence that began with a sweet pass from goalie Darcy Kuemper — who, sensing the Lightning were tired, had the awareness to push the puck up ice — and roof the puck past Vasilevskiy”.
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Avalanche have registered 75 more total shots at the goalie. They had 11 more high danger scoring chances. Clearly the Avalanche were asserting dominance and won a well-deserved championship. However, it didn’t come without controversy. Nazem Kadri’s game 4 winning overtime goal was described by The New York Times as, “Colorado had too many men on the ice when Kadri scored — that MacKinnon lingered too long, too far from the Avalanche bench, when Kadri jumped on.” Kadri received a pass from the defense, and flew up the ice, mean while mackinnon was heading for a change, and when Kadri jumped on, he was still on the ice. Meanwhile, accross the whole other ice, Kadri comes in from the slot aims it, and completely snipes it top shelf on Vasilevsky.
In conclusion, the amazing, dexterous, and well-deserved championship of the Colorado Avalanche during the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals was quite an adventurous ride, unprecedented since 2002. With stars like Nathan Mackinnon and Cale Makar, the Avalanche’s future seems hopeful… who knows what kind of super team they will become.