The Tape: Hockey's Greatest Moment

For many, Raymond Bourque lifting the cup is the greatest moment in NHL history. In a vacuum, the moment of complete joy is fantastic but so many factors played into this fairy tale. On this version of the tape, we look at what led up to this immortal moment in time.

1. The man. Raymond Bourque was a legend long before he joined the Avs organization. One of the greatest offensive defensemen to ever play the game, he still holds multiple NHL records today. Though that is to be expected when an elite player has a 22-year career. He could have retired in the mid-nineties and would have been an automatic Hall of Famer, maybe he would have except for one thing, he had yet to win a Stanley Cup. Calder winner, five-time Norris winner, 19-time all-star, two Olympic golds, the man even had a hat-trick and a penalty shot goal as a defenseman. The entire second half of his career was spent trying to accomplish one thing and on June ninth 2001 he finally got there.

2. The team. The Colorado Avalanche was a monster in the 2000-2001 season. Bourque had joined them the year before where the team came up short of the ultimate goal but decided to return for one final kick at the can. The key names on this team need no introduction and the addition of Rob Blake at the trade deadline brought the future Hall of Famer count to five. The team breezed through the regular season taking home the President’s Trophy. It was built for one purpose: Mission 16W.

3. The playoff path. Round one was a no-doubter as the Avs rolled over the Canucks in a four-game sweep. Admittedly three of the games were close and the Avs relied heavily on their stars for late-game heroics but the Avs looked unstoppable. Round two was the opposite, a grueling seven-game series against the Kings in which the Avs blew a 3 – 1 series lead including a shutout loss in double OT. Again the Avs leaned heavily on their top-six forward core to pull them through, particularly Peter Forsberg. As the Avs put away the Kings handily in game seven Forsberg sat as the Avs playoff points leader with a cool 14 points in 11 games. It was too good to be true as Forsberg had ruptured his spleen in that game seven and would miss the second half of the playoffs. Despite this loss, this team was still star-studded and still on a mission as they took care of business in the conference finals defeating the Blues in 5 games. That set the stage for Cup Finals, as many of you just finished up this series with #DNVRWatches I’ll spare you the details of game 1-6.

4. The Stage. Game 7, Stanley Cup Finals. There is no bigger game in hockey, nor a bigger prize. Win one game and you have won the hardest trophy to win in all of sports. Ray was no stranger to the Cup Finals, he was more experienced than most of the Avs having played for the Cup twice but he had never even made it past Game 5 in his previous tries and those were over a decade ago. On top of this, the Avs were up against the defending Cup champs in the New Jersey Devils. This did have its perks as the hockey world was much more ready to support a man’s 22-year quest for one rather than a potential back-to-back champion. Everything just felt right, this was the way it was meant to be, the way it had to be. I’ve never been much of a believer in fate or destiny or whatever you want to call it but this sequence of events, this confluence of storytelling, this aligning of the stars. All the way down to the New Jersey Devils playing off of Exit 16W, For one night, one game, one moment, everyone believed.

5. The Game. If this weren’t Game 7 of the Cup Final it honestly would have been a pretty routine win for the Avalanche. They were the better team nose to tail. They took the lead less than 10 minutes in and never looked back. The Avs’ top forwards of Sakic, Tanguay, Hejduk, and Drury were simply better than what the Devils had to offer. While the nerves ran high through the game, by the dying seconds there was enough confidence that the countdown began.

6. The Moment. Even something that happens so quickly and ends in just a few heartbeats has so much going into it. Bettman calling Sakic for the Cup, the hemming and hawing over taking the picture, The sweep, the Cup lift, the Gary Thorne call, the moment of unadulterated awe. This is perfection.