Salvas: A Look Back at Nate the Great, Tampa's Tears and Signing a Former Foe

A lot happened this week, but mostly Tampa keeps crying about the Avs.

I didn’t see a single Kucherov jersey last week at the game in Boston… pretty telling who the fans think the Hart Trophy winner should be if you ask me!

This article has been edited to correct the improper crediting of the line “what an idiot” from ‘Old School’ to the correct ‘Wedding Crashers.’ In the words of Will Ferrell’s character in Wedding Crashers, “what an idiot!”

It’s been a wild week for the Avalanche as the team heads into the bye week and All-Star break. From huge individual games from Nathan MacKinnon and Logan O’Connor, to a pair of blowout wins and signing a former foe to solidify the lineup for the stretch run, this has been an interesting seven days to be a fan of the boys in burgundy and blue.

Buckle up, this is long…

Let’s start with the talk of the NHL: Nathan MacKinnon, Nikita Kucherov and the crybabies in Tampa.

The Dogg has been an unstoppable force lately, tearing up the league and cruising to the top of the scoring leaderboard heading into the break. Well… into the Avs’ break, at least. A pair of points for Nikita Kucherov in the Bolts’ final game of the first half against the Devils pushed him into the lead with 85, one more than Mack. 

All I can say is, “THANK GOD!” Can you imagine if the Lightning players had to go to the All-Star Weekend in Toronto and hear about Kuch being in second place? Terrible! They already have the uphill battle of playing in one of the world’s smallest hockey markets and with no respect and coverage of all they’ve been able to accomplish the last half decade. They truly needed this win to validate all they’ve done. I’ll give them credit, though: with the media’s constant oversight of the franchise and their market, they’ve been able to remain level headed and quietly go about their business without resorting to petulant crying and complaining to the media after games or the refs for egregious calls against them during. From the coaching staff to the captain and all the players, it’s the team you point to when you’re teaching your children about how to handle adversity!