Peter King: Optimism Is Everywhere As Camps Start

Hope is no longer a strategy, O Captain, my Captain. Not a working strategy. Not a Stanley Cup-winning strategy, at any rate. Without Gabe Landeskog, the Avs are stuck spinning their wheels in neutral, pining for the hockey gods to give them a push. “I’d like to be able for him to come back and be able to play,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said late Friday after his team’s playoff dreams ended with a gut punch of a loss at home, this time to Dallas, for a second straight spring.

Of course it came down to the puck on Matt Duchene’s stick. It figures because of his history in this building and this state. It figures, too, because he had his fingerprints all over Game 6. Double overtime. Running on fumes. A week that turned the Avalanche’s season upside down. It’s been a long time since Duchene played for Colorado at this point (although, fans still boo him at Ball Arena).

The Colorado Avalanche lost 2-1 in overtime to the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of the second round of the 2024 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Friday night, May 17, 2024. Dallas won the series 4-2. Related Articles Colorado Avalanche | Keeler: Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog is Colorado royalty.

Instant reaction from the Avalanche’s 2-1 loss against Dallas in Game 6 of their second-round Stanley Cup Playoffs series. Georgie’s finest. Fistfights aren’t pretty. They sometimes require just hanging tough. With the season hanging in the balance, Alexandar Georgiev patrolled the crease with little room for error. Colorado’s high-flying offense found itself in a grinder.

For 236 days, the Colorado Avalanche was a Stanley Cup contender during the 2023-24 NHL season. The calculus changed on Day 237, and the memories of how this campaign unraveled in swift fashion may only be rivaled by the what ifs and what could have beens in the decades to come. It all came apart in a few days, weeks short of the intended destination.

Time and time again, the bar was raised. Peak-to-Peak’s Kourtney Rathke and The Classical Academy’s Anna Willis never blinked. Thirteen feet, the standing Class 3A state meet record in the pole vault? No sweat. How about 13 feet, 4 inches? No problem. And 13-4 or 13-7? Cleared without issue. 13-10? A worthy challenge conquered. Finally, their thrilling dual in the sun at Jefferson County Stadium late Friday afternoon in the CHSAA state track and field championships ended when they both missed on three attempts at 14-1.