The Colorado Avalanche scheduled a players-only meeting the evening before they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Game 6 to win their first Stanley Cup in more than 20 years.
Avalanche With Victory Over The Lightning
In Game 5, Colorado had the opportunity to win the Cup at home. Instead, Tampa Bay won 3-2 to extend the series. They would never let another opportunity pass them by.
Cale Makar, who received the Conn Smythe Trophy for being the postseason’s most valuable player, said, “We knew the job that we had to do. But we needed to simply discuss maintaining mental focus and avoiding looking too far ahead.
That’s sort of where our minds were at when [Andrew Cogliano], [Gabriel Landeskog], and [Nathan MacKinnon] spoke, essentially just calming the guys down and making sure that regardless of the outcome, just lay it all out there and see where the game lies.
“I felt like we never looked too far ahead to the outcome — and we definitely feel like we earned that one,” said one player. “Our mentality was just won that period and win the next one, get another shift, and so on.
Makar came third overall in the postseason scoring standings with eight goals and 29 points across 20 games. Last week, the 23-year-old also took home the Norris Trophy, making him just the third defenseman to do so in the same year.
Since the Professional Hockey Writers Association started keeping track of the results five years ago, Makar was the first player to get a unanimous Conn Smythe award.
But it wasn’t his own particular achievements that Makar was most proud of. The entire group contributed to it. Before the Cup Final started, he stated that Colorado was attempting to create a legacy while the two-time Cup winner Lightning was attempting to establish a dynasty.
The Stanley Cup, often known as La Coupe Stanley in French, is the yearly championship trophy given to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff victor. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) regards it as one of the “most important championships accessible to the sport” and notes that it is the oldest trophy still in existence to be given to a professional sports franchise in North America.
The trophy was created in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup and was given to Canada’s greatest amateur ice hockey club by Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada.
The Stanley Cup, often known as La Coupe Stanley in French, is the yearly championship trophy given to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff victor.
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) regards it as one of the “most important championships accessible to the sport” and notes that it is the oldest trophy still in existence to be given to a professional sports franchise in North America.
The trophy was created in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup and was given to Canada’s greatest amateur ice hockey club by Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada.
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