Some History on The Colorado Avelanche - Animations - http://maxpages.com/andrewland/Avalanche

Colorado Avalanche:
First Year, First Cup
By John Halligan
NHL.com

Stastny is the frachise's leading scorer with 1,048 career points.
“Is that all there is to it? That was easy!” It would be hard to blame fans of the Colorado Avalanche from being in that frame of mind after the team cruised to its first Stanley Cup in its very first season in Colorado, 1995-96. The date was June 10, 1996, a mere 11 days shy of one year since the franchise had been transferred from its birthplace in Quebec City, Quebec.

Downtown Denver, hardly a stranger to professional and amateur hockey, was awash with Avalanche jerseys and awash with cheers as captain Joe Sakic hoisted the Stanley Cup itself in front of thousands of adoring fans at a celebration following the Cup triumph. It was the first major sports championship for any Colorado team.

For fans of the team in Quebec City, maybe 2,000 miles away, the triumph was a bittersweet one, coming as it did on the heels of the 16 seasons the team spent as the Quebec Nordiques, from 1979-80 to 1994-95. The Nordiques, originally had been part of the old World Hockey Association, and they joined the National Hockey League with three other teams, the New England Whalers, the Winnipeg Jets and the Edmonton Oilers.

Beloved as they were in Quebec, the demise of the Nordiques was somewhat inevitable. The team played in the immense shadow of their provincial neighbors, the mighty Montreal Canadiens, and in a badly outdated building, Le Colisee.

Among the four WHA clubs that entered the NHL in 1979-80, only the Edmonton Oilers achieved quicker success than the Nordiques. Under the direction of general manager Maurice Filion and legendary coaches Jacques Demers and Michel Bergeron, the Nordiques made the Stanley Cup playoffs seven of their first eight seasons in the NHL, twice advancing as far as the Conference championship in 1982 and 1985.

The Nordiques would boast of some of the most exciting players in NHL history, stars like the Stastny brothers, Anton and Peter, Michel Goulet, Real Cloutier, Marc Tardif, Jacques Richard, and Dale Hunter among them.

Goulet and Peter Stastny would eventually set most of the team’s offensive records, Goulet leading in all-time goals with 456 over 11 seasons, while Stastny topping the all-time points list with 1,048 over 10 campaigns.

Sakic guided the Avalanche to their first Stanley Cup championship in 1996.

The rivalry with the Canadiens, of course, was a white hot one. “The Battle of Quebec” it was called, and it probably reached its zenith in 1982. The first place Canadiens had finished a whopping 43 points ahead of the fourth-place Nordiques, who were in the same division. Quebec won the series, three games to two, and it was then that the Nordiques really came of age.

The move to Colorado ended “The Battle of Quebec”. The teams had met 113 times in regulation play, Montreal winning 62 and Quebec winning 39. There were 12 ties in the series. In the playoffs, Montreal won three times, the Nordiques twice.

Hard times befell the Nordiques in the form of five straight years out of the playoffs, starting in 1987-88. The team was wisely stockpiling draft choices, however, and the future certainly appeared to be a bright one. Marcel Aubut, the Nordiques flamboyant owner and Bergeron even managed to coax the great Guy Lafleur out of retirement for two seasons, 1989-90 and 1990-91. Lafleur was well past his prime by then, but the ex-Canadien great thrilled Quebec fans immensely.

By 1994-95, the draft picks were blossoming, and the Nordiques were back on track, led by players such as Valeri Kamensky, Adam Foote, Joe Sakic, Owen Nolan, and Mats Sundin. One star who never made it was strapping Eric Lindros, the prize of the 1991 Entry Draft and whom Quebec had chosen first overall.

Lindros, however, didn’t want Quebec, and his rights were eventually courted by the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers. The Flyers won the bidding, sending six players (Peter Forsberg, Steve Duchesne, Chris Simon, Kerry Huffman, Mike Ricci and Ron Hextall) to Quebec, along with a first round draft choice that turned out to be Jocelyn Thibault. Forsberg, Simon and Ricci would all be on board for the Stanley Cup triumph in Colorado.

The present day Avalanche are still captained by Sakic. Goalkeeper Patrick Roy, acquired from the Montreal Canadiens just before the Cup triumph, is on the verge of becoming the winningest goalie in NHL history, with only the great Terry Sawchuk ahead of him. Roy was merely brilliant in the Cup year, winning 16 of 22 games, posting three shutouts and a goals-against average of 2.10, and winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

Pierre Lacroix, general manager of the team since 1994, remains at the controls today, only the fourth general manager in the team’s 21 year history. Coach Bob Hartley was not on board for the Cup triumph (Marc Crawford was the bench boss then). Hartley took over the Avalanche at the beginning of the 1998-99 season.

Far from its humble roots in Le Colisee, the Avalanche are comfortably ensconced in their new Denver home, the magnificent Pepsi Center, no doubt counting the days until Stanley Cup number two arrives.

"Through the Years"

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Anchorage	Alaska
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Page Updated Sun May 14, 2000 7:38pm EDT