Friday, March 29, 2024 -
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Pure guts, all glory

It was glorious. For almost exactly three weeks to the day, Colorado reveled in playoff fever. It began the night Passover ended, when, by the skin of their teeth, the Colorado Avalanche advanced to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in four years.

The team with last season’s worst record was now competing with the big guns. And compete they did. They went head to head against the top team in the National Hockey League and boy did the Avalanche make the Nashville Predators earn their spot in the next round. This was no sweep, no easy fight. It took five games for the favorites to wake up and realize that they weren’t going to be gifted this series.

As the series continued, palpable excitement swept the city. Then came the climax: my fellow Swiss countryman Sven Andrighetto’s totally unexpected goal as period three of game five expired to keep the Avalanche season going.

The call heard ‘round the world following that goal: Altitude radio’s Marc Moser passionately describing a team that is “Pure guts. They’ve got nothing but guts. Every guy with three big old cow hearts, two pancreases and five stomachs.”

It was always unlikely that the Avalanche would progress to the next round. But that didn’t matter. It was the turnaround story. It was the chance for a developing team to play playoff hockey and show that yes, we are contenders.

I can’t wait for next season.

Shana Goldberg may be reached at [email protected]

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