Dater: It Was All Going Avs Way, Until It Wasn't

2023-24 started with such high hopes but fate intervened

Matt Duchene, scoring the double-overtime winner to end the Avalanche’s season, on Ball Arena ice. A double gut punch. Not a great way to go to bed last night, not a great way to wake up this morning. I’ve covered this team since Day 1 in 1995, and that was about as quiet a crowd as I can remember when Dutchy put that puck in with a little more than eight minutes left in the second OT.

First off, Dutchy is too nice a guy to gloat publicly about the goal. He was classy and respectful afterward. But, of COURSE he is thinking to himself “Take THAT, mothereffers.”

The general consensus from Jared Bednar and Avs players after the game can seem to be summed up as: “We fought, we tried, but they’re a great team and we came up short.”

True. We’ll speculate more about what lies ahead for this Avs team, but let’s go over the season we just saw and do some post-mortem, 20/20-is-hindsight, second-guessing, media analysis:

• There is no question, but that the Valeri Nichushin situation was another shocking bombshell that took the wind right out of this team’s sails - for a second year in a row. And, it’s on him. I do not think he’ll ever play for the Avs again, not after this stuff happening a second year in a row, in the playoffs. If he is cleared to play again in the NHL, I think the Avs will try to trade him. That might prove wrong, but that’s my opinion.