Sweet Sixteen

MISSION 16W

It was a saying that Ray Bourque hung up in the Colorado Avalanche locker room to refer to that season’s championship plans. It meant that only one thing should matter to the Avs, as it did to Bourque. Getting to the postseason, and putting themselves in the best position possible to get 16 wins in the postseason.

In his 20 previous seasons in Boston, Bourque had been a big part of carrying the Bruins to the playoffs. Every single season. Boston never missed a playoff during Ray’s tenure, but also rarely saw further success. In all those years, Boston made it to a single Stanley Cup Finals, being swept in that process. Only a couple other Conference Finals appearances dotted his resume, with flameout after flameout haunting his tenure. For Bourque, that cup hung on each season’s horizon like the cruelest of mirages. Bourque wanted to remind a star-studded Avalanche cast that only one thing mattered at season’s end.

16 wins.

With Rob Blake, Patrick Roy, Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic and more on that sparkly Avs squad, Bourque knew that there could have been a million distractions for a team that looked like the story of the year and a team of destiny. The only thing that could keep them from failure. Sweet sixteen.

By the way, Bourque hung that 16W up in the preseason. Talk about focused.

For this season’s Avalanche squad, there may not be the level of postseason frustration that Bourque experienced – yet – but you’ve certainly felt it mounting after the last few playoff flameouts. This season is Gabe Landeskog’s 10th as captain, and the rest of the team’s core has now been together more than long enough to fully coalesce.

Ultimate success has proven difficult to come by. Since the current team started finding their playoff legs in the 2017-18 season, the results have been mixed, at best.

At the end of the ’17-’18 campaign, Colorado ran into a buzzsaw in this year’s eventual first-round opponent, the Nashville Predators. The Avs managed two measly (and narrow) wins on their way out the door, in games three and five. It was a victory to have made the postseason after several seasons’ worth of misses, but the quick exit was too brief a taste for most fans.

At the end of the ’18-’19 season, these Avs made it handily past the first round in five games against the Flames, but then flamed out against San Jose in seven games. Colorado managed seven postseason wins that time around.

’19-’20 brought a near-carbon-copy of the season prior, with the postseason ending in the second round. A five game series against the Coyotes had Colorado looking like world beaters, but Dallas found a way under the Avs skin, and stole a seven game series to keep Colorado at another seven-win postseason. Damn. F—.

’20-’21 was another trip to Downtown Disappointment. A sweep of the St. Louis Blues had Avalanche Nation ready for a deep trip into the playoffs. The first two games against the Golden Knights had Colorado up 2-0, and feeling even stronger. But watching the next four games melt away to Vegas was the reason that even the calm Avs captain got a little colorful in his postseason comments.

No doubt about it, this Avalanche squad has been built the old-fashioned way. From the ground up, and with a wise draft and smart trades culminating in yet another regular-season powerhouse for the Colorado faithful. But nearly a decade into this build, everyone from the fans to the owner’s box is ready to see something more. A blowout in Game One was a beautiful site to behold this year, no doubt. But it was a win. One. Scraping one out in a tough-fought overtime win was another win. Two. But that’s it. Two wins. And this Avs squad is experienced and battle-tested enough to know it. One was nice. Two was a little bit better. Eight would be further than they’ve ever gone before. But sixteen… That is the goal. Sixteen.

Sixteen is really the only thing that would be oh so very sweet.