A Bad Night at the Office

Amalie Arena. A place that is near and dear to the hearts of Colorado Avalanche fans. In that very building, on Sunday night, June 26, 2022, the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup for the third time in franchise history. It was an amazing Final; defeating a Tampa Bay Lightning team who was looking to win their third straight Cup. This Avs fan always remembers that date very fondly, and treasures that arena as the place where it all happened.

However, that was June 26, 2022. November 25, 2024, well, that's a night I really want to forget.

The Avalanche's four-game road trip concluded against Tampa Bay, and we were coming off a huge win in Sunrise against the defending champions. We were looking to complete the road sweep that night. Boy, did that not come to pass. Justus Annunen was in net against Andrei Vasilevskiy, and to say the opening frame was a disaster would be an understatement. At 5:41, Nick Perbix made it 1-0 for the Bolts--unassisted. Two minutes later, Jake Guentzel made it 2-0, and that goal had assists: Brandon Hagel and Nikita Kucherov. Remember the former. That goal was on the power play, but 70 seconds later, Ivan Ivan got us on the board. Valeri Nichushkin and Mikko Rantanen with the helpers. So we were looking to tie it up, but at 10:03, it was Nikita Kucherov, because of course it was. Only one assist on that goal, and it was Brandon Hagel. There's that name again.

At that moment, I was saying, "Why isn't Georgiev starting?" Literally seconds after I said that, Georgie was in. Juice's night was done. Even better, the Avs were going on the power play. Now we could get something done. Unfortunately, the Bolts had a 2-on-1 breakaway, and all of a sudden, it was 4-1 for Tampa Bay. Luke Glendening with the shortie, and the assist? Brandon Hagel. The power play was killed off, and at the near end of the period, Anthony Cirelli scored. The assists: Erik Cernak and, yes, Brandon Hagel.

It was 5-1 after 20 minutes. Yeesh. A small part of me thought back to last year when we were down 4-0 against the Pittsburgh Penguins and won. But even then, my gut feeling told me we were not going to get out of this alive. The second period was calm, but Georgiev wasn't after Brayden Point scored a power play goal in the middle of the frame. The assists: you guessed it, Brandon Hagel and Nikita Kucherov. That's it. This was done. 6-1 was the score after 40 minutes. Ivan Ivan scored again early in the third, but all that did was piss off the Bolts, who added two more before the final horn sounded.

To me, this was a revenge game--in more ways than one--for the Bolts. First off, Kucherov. You know he had to have been irked over not getting the Hart last year. He won the Ross as the points leader, with 100 of those points being helpers, but face the facts, MacKinnon was better. But it's more than that. This was two years in the making. This was the arena where we ended Tampa Bay's dynasty, so yeah, the Bolts really tore into us. Brandon Hagel had five assists--four of them in the first period! This was a nightmare for the Avs, especially for the goalies.

Here's the thing: blowouts like this happen. I'm pretty sure teams who went on to win the Stanley Cup have been punched in the mouth like this during their season. The Avs will rebound from this. Count on it. I would not want to be the Vegas Golden Knights right now. That's who we play next. A day before the Avs feast on turkey, we host the Golden Turkeys, I mean Knights on TNT on Wednesday.

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