What Went Wrong: If the Avalanche Reach the West Final and Don't Show Up, Did We Really Make It?

You know, if this isn't the ultimate definition of "How it started and how it's going," then I don't know what is. This was a dream campaign for the Colorado Avalanche. We were coming off being cheated by the Dallas Stars and crooked officials last year. Explosive start to this season. Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood playing like gangbusters. Cale Makar doing Cale Makar things. First full season with Gabriel Landeskog back at captain since our Cup year. Nathan MacKinnon, well, existing.

We finished with the best season in franchise history. People were handing us the Cup, and it was one of those rare moments where no one questioned the early crowning. First round, piece of cake. Easy sweep over the Kings. Second round was a little challenging. The best Minnesota Wild team in their history. They hit us in the mouth a few times, including beating us in Game Three, but we won Game Four. Down 3-0 in Game Five, came back to force OT, Brett Kulak wins it. The Avs were off to the Final Four. The first Presidents' Trophy team not named the New York Rangers to reach the Final Four since that 2013 Blackhawks.

That's how it started. How it went? Oh, good God...

We faced the Vegas Golden Knights, without Cale Makar. Game One started quiet, but Vegas ended up leading 3-0. We tried to pull off another comeback, but lost because Nic Dowd beat us to the puck and got the empty-netter. Game Two. No Cale again. We scored first. It looked like we'd strike back, but the third period saw us totally give it away. Game Three. Cale's back! "Now we'll show 'em!" I and every other Avs fan said. We certainly did; 3-0 lead after the first period, and we totally wasted it. Five unanswered goals by Vegas. We spent Game Four waving the white flag.

A great season and a great start to the playoffs, all gone to pot. So many things went wrong for us in those four games, but as usual, I'll put it bluntly and factually:

Cale Makar is the best defenseman in the entire league, and only Quinn Hughes can come close to matching that. Was Cale missing Games One and Two a big negative? Yes. But remember: we played three years without a captain. We had risen above obstacles like that before. We should have done it here. We acted like we forgot how to play with Cale out, and we lost two games at home to a Vegas team who had Mark Stone out. That's flat out unacceptable.

We all know that the refs and the Golden Knights have a long marriage to each other, but I'll be honest: the only game that the zebras gave Vegas was Game Two, and even that was about 50/50. The other 50 was players like Devon Toews committing dumb turnovers that resulted in two of Vegas' goals. I feel like the only players who really did their part during this run were Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas, Gabriel Landeskog (Landy had six goals, three of them in the West Final), and both goalies.

And I'm getting this out there NOW. If you are blaming Jared Bednar for this, or saying that he should be fired, consider your Avalanche fan status revoked. Gone. You seriously want a coach who got us that Cup in 2022, and should have been an Adams Trophy winner at least three times fired?! One "fan" actually told me, "He's not Jon Cooper (Tampa Bay Lightning coach)." No, Bednar's not Jon Cooper. He BEAT Jon Cooper. And unlike Cooper, Bednar's won a playoff series since then. Three of them, to be exact, while Cooper lost to ham-and-eggers like the Panthers.

Don't be like Leafs fans and unfairly scapegoat someone, run them off, and watch them win elsewhere. But I'll humor this. Say we do fire Bednar. Who replaces him? Who's good enough to fill those shoes? There's only one available coach out there who could possibly fill those shoes, and that's Bruce Cassidy. Other than that? Nothing. Do not turn the Avs into the NHL equivalent of what the Steelers did; Tomlin left, and they hire incompetent Mike McCarthy.

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The bottom line: this year's Avalanche season started well, but ended so horribly. But I feel that we will be back in it next year and win the whole thing. Remember what happened the last time we lost to Vegas as Presidents' Trophy winners? Yeah. And I'm a big believer in omens.

One final note. Today is a day for mourning for not only us Avs fans, but NHL fans as a whole, as Claude Lemieux--the iconic enforcer who played 21 NHL seasons--passed away at age 60. Lemieux (no relation to Mario Lemieux) was drafted by the Montréal Canadiens in 1983, and was part of their Stanley Cup Championship run in 1986. He would add three more Stanley Cups, two with the New Jersey Devils in 1995 and 2000, and in-between those Cups, Lemieux played four-plus seasons with the Avalanche, including being part of our first Cup in 1996. He was quite the goon as well, averaging 100 PIMs (Penalty Minutes) per season, and delivered some brutal moments in his career. During that Cup season in Denver, Claude's son, Brendan Lemieux, was born, and Brendan followed in his dad's NHL footsteps and played over a decade in the league.

From an Avs fan who enjoyed the wild moments and loved seeing him make the Red Wings fear him, I simply say--Thank you, Claude Lemieux.