Of course, even after these Stanley Cup finals, this wonderful tradition could be admired again. Ice hockey involves fighting and sometimes also beatings – but when it’s over, everyone involved shakes hands. This year was a special moment because after two championships in a row, the Tampa Bay Lightning players knew how those they just lost to felt now. They were friendly, almost cheerful handshakes, as if greeting one another in this circle of Stanley Cup winners.
It’s called the Colorado Avalanche, and that’s why there was a lot of respect in the encounters on the ice. Colorado has the most wins (72) in the history of the North American professional league including playoffs, they lost only four games in the knockout rounds and scored 30 goals more than their opponents – no club managed a better ratio than plus six. The best team won the title, 21 years after the club’s last Stanley Cup win and just five years after the Avalanche had the league’s worst record.
Colorado attacker Nico Sturm is now the fifth German to triumph in the NHL. Before the 27-year-old from Augsburg, Uwe Krupp, Dennis Seidenberg, Tom Kühnhackl and Philipp Grubauer had succeeded. Sturm only switched from the Minnesota Wild to his new team in mid-March. “I want to help the Colorado team win the Stanley Cup. I’ll worry about everything else after the season,” he said. Now Sturm was able to lift the almost 90 centimeters high and almost 16 kilograms trophy – with a big grin like his teammates.
“It’s something you dream of all your life,” said Avalanche manager Joe Sakic afterwards, who knows exactly what he’s talking about: he joined the club in 1987, then called Quebec Nordiques. In the season after moving to Colorado (1995/96) he won the title as a player – Uwe Krupp scored the decisive goal – and another five years later. In 2009 he ended his active career, after two years he began to work in the management of the club. Sakic is So Avalanche, and he is therefore also familiar with this bad sport-philosophical question: What hurts more – to lose often or to be close to triumph and then lose?
Even after a season with the league’s worst record, they remained relatively calm in Colorado
When the title was won, there were also bitter defeats: in the playoffs against the Dallas Stars (1999, 2000) and the Detroit Red Wings (2002, with Uwe Krupp) or the six-time failure despite the best record in the Western Conference (1997 -2000, 2002-03) before the final series – which caused the ridicule of fans of the rivals that Colorado really shouldn’t be worried; they’d find a way to screw it up somehow.
You really didn’t have to worry as an opponent for 15 years, after only two playoff appearances in nine years, this season followed in 2017 with the worst record in the league. The coach back then: Jared Bednar, who replaced club legend Patrick Roy (goalkeeper for the 1996 and 2001 titles) at the start of the season. Top scorer then: Mikko Rantanen. Top Points Collector: Nathan MacKinnon. The tough dog with the most penalty minutes: Gabriel Landeskog.
Once coach of the team with the worst record in the league, now coach of the team with the best record: Colorado coach Jared Bednar.
(Photo: Bruce Bennett/AFP)
Coach now on the title: Jared Bednar. Top scorer: Nate MacKinnon (45). Top Points Collector : Mikko Rantanen (117). Tough dog with the most penalty minutes: Gabriel Landeskog (84). “There were already incredibly good players there back then, but they were still young,” says Sakic. That’s why they stayed relatively relaxed in Colorado after this unsuccessful season, they hoped: Something could grow there, and if we take care of it properly, then something could come of it. It worked out, Avalanche made it into the playoffs regularly again – and suffered bitter defeats again, in the decider against the San Jose Sharks in 2019 or last season against the Vegas Golden Knights, despite the best record in the entire league.
So, what’s worse, losing a lot – or being known for coming so close to triumph and always messing up?
“Anyone who knows what sacrifices it takes to get this far knows how it feels not to win in the end,” said MacKinnon after the 2-1 win in the sixth final game against Tampa Bay. He was alluding to the fact that among NHL players, only a completely severed body part is a reason for absence, on the other hand the Americans win the Stanley Cup due to injuries and other unpredictable circumstances (in the past 20 years only two clubs have won the title, the had the best record after the regular season) hold the Stanley Cup as the most difficult trophy to achieve in club sports worldwide. “Now I finally know what it feels like to win,” said MacKinnon.
Nico Sturm has become a regular in the playoffs
That leads to this finals series against Tampa Bay. The team had made it to the finals after a mixed regular season. Lightning is known for always getting it right despite problems – and in turn played against the club that is known for always screwing it up somehow.
Colorado won the first game after overtime, the second 7-0. It went as many pundits had predicted. When Colorado won the fourth match after overtime after a weak game and led 3-1 in the best-of-seven series, it was clear: the thing was over. But then Tampa Bay won convincingly in Colorado and had home advantage in that sixth game on Sunday night. Suddenly it was said: Surely they won’t come back, and Colorado won’t…?
Almost six minutes on the ice on Sunday – and now immortalized in the Stanley Cup: Nico Sturm (right).
(Photo: Mike Carlson/AFP)
No, because Colorado just didn’t screw up and stayed calm even after being down 1-0 on Sunday. The team defended outstandingly, only allowing four shots on their own goal in the last section; Defensive player Cale Makar was voted the Most Valuable Player of this Finals series. “We have a lot of warriors in this team,” said MacKinnon, of course he also meant the German attacker Nico Sturm, who was promoted to the regular squad in the playoffs, stood on the ice for almost six minutes on Sunday and is now engraving his name on the cup gets.
There’s another wonderful tradition in the NHL: the winner gets to keep the cup, which has been awarded since 1893, for a year and do pretty much anything they want with it. The Stanley Cup has therefore already spent a night on the frozen Rideau Canal, the mortgage on Madison Square was burned in it, and it was thrown into a campfire at a victory celebration. Three children were baptized in it, dogs and horses ate from it, and above all it was repeatedly damaged during wild celebrations.
Something always happens, Colorado continued with this tradition on Sunday: As Mikko Rantanen rushed to the winning photo, he slipped and slammed the cup onto the ice – it immediately had a visible dent. Didn’t seem to bother anyone though, especially those who had messed it up so many times and now finally know what it feels like to celebrate with this Stanley Cup.