I say this with full sincerity, no blowing smoke up your you-know-what: YOU made a difference in this Avalanche victory in the first round, you fans.

While the “mainstream” media in this town looked down upon you, said the Avalanche was a niche team in a niche sport and that only the Broncos and the Nuggets were worthy of their attention, airtime and ink, you showed them how brain dead they are.

You showed up in Game 3 against the Calgary Flames like you were all 6-year-old kids on Christmas morning, full of excitement and enthusiasm and joy. I say this will honest-to-god truth: The fans made a real difference in this series, in getting Avs players to believe a little more in themselves. It wasn’t so much confidence that was lacking, though. It was a question mark in many players’ minds if you all really cared that much about them.

Sure, every team knows they have a bunch of die-hard fans. But after Game 3, I had more than a couple guys come up to me – unsolicited – and say, “Wow, I didn’t know we had such good fans.” 

The Avs came home from Calgary after Game 2 with a 1-1 split, and that was great and all. But when the team came out of the locker room for Game 3, to those thunderous “Let’s Go Avs!” chants, it did something to the team, players said. When you all showed you were invested in this team, it made an absolute difference to the players. Normally, players don’t really notice things like crowd noise all that much, but this time it was noticed.

It took me by surprise, it took the players by surprise. In a pleasant way.

I’ve covered every single Avs playoff series since the team moved to Denver in 1995, all 32 of them, and I can only think of two games where the noise matched you in Games 3 and 4, and those are: Game 6 of the 1996 Western finals against Detroit at McNichols Arena, and Game 7 of the 2001 Cup finals against New Jersey.

That 2001 Game 7 is a tough one to top, right? Ray Bourque gets his first Cup in his final game in a 22-year career, Avs come back from a 3-2 deficit to win a Cup.

But wow, did you come close to matching that loudness in Games 3 and 4. It made a real difference.

So, take a bow, Avs fans. You deserved this playoff victory, the team’s first in 11 years. Rest up those lungs, because:

Round 2 is coming up.