Avalanche raise Stanley Cup banner, bury Blackhawks in season opener

How are we back here already?

I’ve always hated the phrase “feels like it was just yesterday”, so I’m not going to say that, but it was almost surreal being back inside Ball Arena so soon for a Colorado Avalanche game that actually mattered.

Yes, the game technically did matter in terms of it being Regular Season game #1, but that was all secondary to the events that preceded puck drop.

For the first time in 21 years, the Avalanche sent a Stanley Cup Championship banner to the rafters, and it was a really special moment for Avs faithful.

It hadn’t really occurred to me until about 30 minutes before the ceremony actually got going, since the Avs won the Cup in Tampa Bay, this was the first time that the Ball Arena crowd was able to celebrate the team in person. The place was buzzing an hour before any of the festivities even started.

Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus was in the building to help lead the crowd in the sing-a-long of All the Small Things, Gabe Landeskog took the Cup on a lap around the ice in front of the home crowd, and maybe my favorite part… Jack Johnson, now a member of the Chicago Blackhawks, joined the team on the ice to be a part of the official banner-raising portion of the ceremony. 

We’ll have plenty more coming out on the actual ceremony itself, so we can move on to talking about the game, but it really was a memorable night and a special moment for Avalanche fans everywhere.

Let’s rundown what happened on the ice.

The Avs and the Chicago couldn’t be further apart in terms of what each team is looking to accomplish this season, and that was wildly evident as soon as the puck dropped as the Avs cruised to a 5-2 victory to kick off the new season. 

From the first shift, the Avs were running downhill. If not for newly acquired Blackhawks goaltender Petr Mrazek, the first period could have ended 7-0. It was just an all-out assault.

Mrazek was able to keep the game scoreless beyond the halfway mark of the opening period, but eventually it was everyone’s no-brainer pick for the first goal of the season who got the Avs on the board. 

Yes, that’s right, Andrew Cogliano broke the goal-scoring ice for the 2022-23 Avalanche season, just like we all thought he would. 

Jokes aside, doesn’t it always seem like it’s always a guy from the bottom half of a team’s lineup that gets the first goal of the year? Last year it was Jack Johnson, and we all remember the now infamous Joe Colbourn hat trick game, right? 

Either way, it was a great tip in front by Cogliano, off of a Nathan MacKinnon shot from the point. The Avs’ season was off and running.

As is often the case, the teams went through so much of the period without finding the back of the net, then suddenly once one goes in, it’s like neither team can miss.

Chicago’s Jonathan Toews answered back less than two minutes later on the power play to tie it, but it took Colorado just 75 seconds later to regain the lead. 

Val Nichushkin punched in a beautiful pass from Mikko Rantanen right in front of the net, and I really felt like that goal completely took the wind out of Mrazek’s sails. He had played really well, his team had gotten him a goal, and he just couldn’t quite get his team to the dressing room with an even score. 

I wish, for our friends over at CHGO’s sake, I could say it was more of the same once the middle frame started, but it got so much worse. 

The Avalanche were bigger, stronger, faster. The Hawks were doing all they could to just try and keep up, but all it really resulted in was a non-stop parade to the penalty box. 

Enter Artturi Lehkonen.

Lehkonen did exactly what head coach Jared Bednar is going to want out of him this season in the top six. Go to the net, and be strong on your stick. He buried one early in the period on a great deflection in front, then added to it as the middle frame was winding down with a quick shot from right in front that beat Mrazek through the five-hole.

The third period somewhat reminded me of a way less intense version of what we saw in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. The Avalanche have somehow found a way to continue using uptempo play while simultaneously locking the game down. 

Max Domi scored early in the period to get the game within a pair, but that was really the last threatening opportunity Chicago generated. It’s not that they had just packed it in or anything, they just couldn’t hang.

Val Nichushkin would add his second of the night with less than five minutes remaining, and Josh Manson left his mark on the evening by dropping the gloves with Chicago’s Sam Laferty.

I said it at the beginning of this piece, the pregame Banner raising ceremony was the highlight of the night. Even with an injury-depleted lineup, this Avalanche team was just flat-out better in every aspect of the game. Their big guns all showed up, with MacKinnon, Rantanen, and Makar all notching three points or more.

All of that being said, there are several areas of the game where the Avs could be better, and I expect them to clean those things up as they get healthy, and some of these new line combinations continue to gel. 

It was a fun night to kick off the title-defense season, but the Avs are back to business tomorrow as they visit old friend Nazem Kadri and the Calgary Flames.