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How the Colorado Avalanche got their Stanley Cup mojo back

Sean Keeler, Denver Post
Colorado Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer, left, is congratulated by left wing Matt Calvert after stopping a shot.
AP Photo/David Zalubowski

Blame Barry Trotz. Or thank him.

To understand how things got right with the Colorado Avalanche, Pierre McGuire says, it helps to start with where the wheels came off. He’ll even give you a date: December 17, when the New York Islanders and Trotz, their sagacious coach, rolled into the Pepsi Center and left with a 4-1 win.

“Before that, I thought Colorado was playing really, really good hockey,” McGuire, the NBC Sports NHL analyst and reporter, told The Post recently. “I did the Tampa Bay-Colorado game (Oct. 24) and Tampa’s guys all said the same thing: That (the Avs) were the fastest team they’d played all year, that it was a dangerous team. Trotz stagnated that. The game plan was to stagnate them in the neutral zone.”



It worked. More than that, it stuck. In the 16 games before Dec. 17, the Avs posted a record of 10-3-3 and averaged 3.88 goals.  In the 16 games P.T., Post Trotz? A mark of 4-10-2 and 2.81 goals per contest.

Read the full story via The Denver Post.


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