Shenanigans

On the same day that Game Five of the World Series took place, the Colorado Avalanche were in action. The Avs were coming off the end of our five game winning streak, and entering Game 11, we received some very damning news: Ross Colton would be out for 6-8 weeks. The man who had been making heads turn with his many goals already is now out for several weeks. This already adds to the who's who on the injured list, and of course, Val Nichushkin's suspension. We really are the San Francisco 49ers of the NHL, are we?

So yes, I had two games on interest on at the same time, and both of them did not end well in my case. One of these game really upset me to no end, and the other... was Game Five of the World Series. Every fan of a team has one or two teams they really need to beat no matter how early or late in the season it is. If you had asked me about 25 years ago who the Avs need to beat no matter what, the answer would be easy: the Detroit Red Wings. The teams change over the years, and regarding us Avs fans, myself especially, there are three teams who we really need to beat: the Vegas Golden Knights, the Edmonton Oilers, and our Game 11 opponent, the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Vegas and Edmonton go without saying, but Tampa's become a very recent rivalry. Yes, we beat them in the Stanley Cup Final in 2022, but it's become more than even that. It's been about Nathan MacKinnon vs Nikita Kucherov since last year, when the two players were neck and neck in the Hart Trophy race, as well as the Ross Trophy battle. The latter battle was close, but Kucherov ended up running away with the Ross, and that led to a belief that he would win another Hart Trophy, only for MacKinnon to finally take it. Bolts fans had been very salty since. They believe Kucherov was robbed, and they spent the whole season acting like Kuch was by himself on the team (forgetting that Point, Stamkos, and Hedman existed).

So yeah, needless to say, Kucherov was looking for payback. Sadly, he got it, and it didn't take him long.

For some reason, we decided to start Kaapo Kahkonen against Andrei Vasilevskiy. It went about as well as one expected. 61 seconds in, Kucherov scores. At 3:36, Jake Guentzel made it 2-0. Less than two minutes after that, Conor Geekie scores. Three goals on five shots. TB did get the first power play of the game, but it became four-on-four brief after Vasilevskiy committed a tripping infraction. Avs went on an abbreviated PP, and Ivan Ivan put us on the board. We trailed 3-1 after 20 minutes.

Then there was the Matt Steinberg hit. It was not a dirty hit. It was a normal hit, yet they called a five minute major. That was killed off thankfully, but sadly, Guentzel added a second goal to make it 4-1. That was the score after 40, Cale Makar (who was celebrating his birthday that night) made it 4-2, but it was over. We couldn't get anything else, and Anthony Cirelli added an empty net goal.

Yeah, this loss was the true upsetting thing about Wednesday, not the World Series. At least in baseball, the silver lining I had was that the Yankees made it there after 15 years. This? This was a mess. Yes, we were shorthanded, but even so, Kucherov had a three point night, giving Bolts fans more ammo to say that he should have won the Hart last year. ANd we talk about how the refs love Vegas so much, I think it's much worse with Jon Cooper (TB's coach). He's been hella salty since the evening of June 26, 2022, so he's looking to take it out on somebody. Ugh.

So the Avs finished the month of October with a record of 5-6-0; still a losing month but considering how we started? It's a win. The Avs start the month of November in Nashville against Steven Stamkos' new team, the Predators. After that. we host the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday, and on Thursday, it's a trip to Winnipeg against the Jets.

* * *

Thank you for reading my recap! Click the heart if you liked it, click the subscribe button for more of my stories, and feel free to comment below! Tips and pledges would also be appreciated, but only if you want to do so!