Avalanche Game 80 Recap: Hell(e)'s Bells

Oh boy. So let's get this over with.

This won't be the typical Colorado Avalanche recap, because I'll start off by telling the result right off the bat. We lost 7-0 at home to the Winnipeg Jets in a game we needed. Entering this game, both teams had an outside shot at the Central Division, but in case this game ended up being a preview of the opening round, we needed to win this to get a crack at home-ice in that series.

We weren't even close.

Four goals just like that in the first period, and Alexandar Georgiev's day ended up done. What followed was a bunch of unfair blame towards Georgie by Avs "fans" on Twitter, and clearly, they didn't watch what was happening. Refs refused to call penalties on Peg, because they were getting away with things. The Avs weren't shooting the puck. Georgie was holding the fort down on his own. He had 10 saves before he was pulled! What more could fans ask of him?! And when I mention this to fans, I get treated like I don't know anything about the sport I've followed and watched for 30 years. This includes a "fan" named "JaniceOwen," who had the nerve to try to White-splain the sport to me.

So yeah, it was Justus Annunen the rest of the way, and he ended up giving up three more goals in the second period. Connor Hellebuyck had the easiest shutout in his career, and it was against this team. As I said before, we needed this game, and we didn't show up to the dance. As a result, we are now two points behind the Jets in the Central standings. Oh, and the Dallas Stars won their game against the Seattle Kraken, so they are the champions of the Central, meaning that this game officially became a playoff preview.

So yeah, we're facing the Jets in Round 1--the only West team we had never faced in the playoffs. We haven't beaten them this year, they just blew us out, and appear to have some recent problems. So it's over for us, right? Well, that's what the fake fans are saying. So much negativity. "First round exit." "We're getting swept." Get away from me with that nonsense. I said this weeks ago, and I'll say it here again, and I'm going to be blunt. I don't give a flying fuck who we end up playing in the playoffs, we'll beat 'em. You think we haven't had our backs to the wall before? You think we haven't been on the verge of possibly being bested? Yet what have we done? We've persevered. We've survived. Hell, we won!

You think that 2022 Cup was just easy? The hell it was! That season was quite the adventure. We ended that regular season winning once in seven games. We faced adversity during that entire run. Yet how did it end up? Heads of the table, that's how! Have we all forgotten that no Stanley Cup run is easy? The Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in sports. Why are some Avalanche fans expecting us to have an easy run? The Avalanche have never done things easy. That's not our style. Our style is luring opponents into a false sense of security before beating them.

So that's Game #80, and Game #81 will occur on the following day. It will be the Avs' 41st and final road game of the regular season, a matinee outing against the Vegas Golden Knights. The Avs' regular season ends at home on Thursday against the Edmonton Oilers. Oh, and one more thing. To any and all Avs fans reading this, remember: in each of our three Stanley Cup Championship runs, we faced a Canadian team at some point. If you believe in good omens, as I do, there's some food for thought.

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