When they present slide shows of their past, members of the Avalanche have a legitimate excuse for sounding like annoyingly proud parents, holding the rest of the room hostage with cries of “Oh, and you’re going to love this part …”
The Avs have countless wonderful pictures from the postseason and their trips along the way there. On Saturday night, the Avs were eliminated from postseason contention for the first time since the team packed up from Quebec and relocated to Denver. From that day in 1995 to the present, the Avs played 153 playoff games. That’s nearly two full regular-season schedules. There were two Stanley Cups and four other trips to the Western Conference finals. Avalanche reporter Adrian Dater looks back at the Avs’ 10-season playoff run in Denver:
1995-96
Record: 47-25-10, 104 points, first, Pacific Division
Road to playoffs: The Avs won 10 of their final 14 games. The team was eager to see if Patrick Roy still could be dominant in the playoffs.
The postseason: The Avs had trouble with Vancouver in the first round, but beat the Canucks and Chicago in a tough, six-game series, then beat Detroit in six in the Western Finals. After beating the Wings, the Avs had an easy time of it in the Finals, sweeping the Florida Panthers. It was Denver’s first major professional sports title, and the Avs did it their first year in town.
1996-97
Record: 49-24-9, 109 points, first, Pacific Division
Road to playoffs: The Avs won the Presidents’ Trophy for best regular-season record, but their season began to go bad in the infamous March 26, 1997, game at Detroit, when the Wings settled some old scores with Claude Lemieux. Colorado went 3-5 in its final eight games.
The postseason: The Avs beat Chicago and Edmonton, setting up another showdown with Detroit in the conference finals. Colorado won the first game, but lost four of the next five.
1997-98
Record: 39-26-17, 95 points, first, Pacific Division
Road to playoffs: The Avs stumbled badly at the end of the season, losing six in a row from March 30-April 11. The Olympics had taken nine players from their roster and some seemed a bit tired.
The postseason: The Avs blew a 3-1 first-round lead and lost to Edmonton in seven games. Joe Sakic was suspended for the first game – an Avs loss – for a hit against Detroit’s Kris Draper in the final regular-season game.
1998-99
Record: 44-28-10, 98 points, first, Northwest Division
Road to playoffs: The Avs picked up Theo Fleury near the NHL trade deadline, and played well down the stretch, winning nine of their final 12.
The postseason: In the first round against San Jose, the Avs began the series on the road rather than play in Denver right after the shootings at Columbine High School. The Avs overcame to beat the Sharks.
In the second round, Colorado was down 2-0 to the two-time defending champion Red Wings, heading to Detroit for Games 3 and 4. The Avs
blasted Detroit four consecutive times. They lost in seven games to Dallas in the Western Finals after blowing a 3-2 series lead with Game 6 at home.
1999-2000
Record: 42-28-11, 96 points, first, Northwest Division
Road to playoffs: With a 30-27-10 record, Pierre Lacroix shocked the world by acquiring defenseman Ray Bourque from Boston at the trading deadline. The Avs won their final eight games.
The postseason: The Avs had an easy time of it in the first two rounds against Phoenix and Detroit. A Stanley Cup seemed imminent after Colorado took two of the first three games against Dallas, but despite outshooting the Stars by wide margins, the Avs fell in seven games in the Western Finals.
2000-01
Record: 52-16-10-4, 118 points, first, Northwest Division
Road to playoffs: The Avs vowed not to have another seventh game in an opposing building for the playoffs, and made good on that with a huge regular season. The line of Sakic, Milan Hejduk and Alex Tanguay was a terror, and Lacroix added star defenseman Rob Blake at the trading deadline.
The postseason: There were plenty of scary moments in the playoffs. First was a tough, seven-game, second-round series against the Kings. Then, the Avs lost Peter Forsberg before the conference finals because of a ruptured spleen. Then, they faced a 3-2 series deficit to defending champ New Jersey, with Game 6 at the Meadowlands. Roy turned heroic, shutting out the Devils 4-0, then beating them 3-1 in a memorable Game 7 in Denver.
2001-02
Record: 45-28-8-1, 99 points, first, Northwest Division
Road to playoffs: The Avs went into the playoffs 6-5-1 in their final 12 games, but Roy was tremendous all season and helped win another division.
The postseason: The Avs got an electrifying boost with the return of Forsberg. After not playing all season, the splendid Swede led the NHL in playoff scoring. But it wasn’t enough, as the Avs again blew a 3-2 Western Finals lead and were upended in a 7-0 loss in Game 7 at Detroit.
2002-03
Record: 42-19-13-8, 105 points, first, Northwest Division
Road to playoffs: The Avs won the division for an NHL-record ninth consecutive time on the final day of the regular season. The Avs beat St. Louis to edge the Canucks by a point for the title with the help of L.A.’s defeat of Vancouver.
The postseason: After winning three of the first four against Minnesota in the first round, the Avs looked past the Wild. Trouble was, Minnesota didn’t think the series was over, and beat Colorado in the next three games.
2003-04
Record: 40-22-13-7, 100 points, second, Northwest Division
Road to playoffs: This was expected to be one of the great NHL teams when the Avs added stars Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne as free agents and still had Blake and Adam Foote on defense, with newcomer Derek Morris acquired from Calgary. But Kariya was hurt much of the time, while Selanne played on a bad knee and was awful.
The postseason: The Avalanche got a nice first-round win against Dallas, but ran into a hot San Jose team and lost in six games the next round.
2005-06
Record: 43-30-9, 95 points, second, Northwest Division.
Road to playoffs: The Avs slipped into the seventh seed, thanks to some good goaltending down the stretch by rookie Peter Budaj. They had acquired injured goalie Jose Theodore from Montreal before the trading deadline, hoping he could do what Roy previously did in the playoffs.
The postseason: Theodore outplayed Dallas’ Marty Turco in the first round, but the Avs ran into a hot Anaheim team and were swept in the next round.
