I’m writing this the day after the Colorado Avalanche lost Game 5 of their first-round playoff series against the Seattle Kraken, and the day before they face elimination in Game 6.
I care about hockey more than any other sport, which makes it less fun to pay attention to. Playoff hockey can be dramatic, tense, and fun, but it’s also stressful to watch, especially when your favorite team is on the wrong side of the drama. As much as I’d prefer to see the Avalanche repeat as Stanley Cup champions, I’m ready for their season to end tomorrow.
It’s been a weird season. Team captain Gabe Landeskog has missed the entire season and won’t play in these playoffs. Several key depth players from last season departed in free agency, and the team has struggled to replace their offensive production. The team underperformed for significant portions of the regular season, but ended up winning the division. Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen both scored more than 100 points, setting career highs in the process. Alexandar Georgiev demonstrated he can be a very capable number-one goaltender.
The playoffs have been weird, too. Colorado was generally expected to roll over the Seattle, though perhaps not dominate them. Instead, the Kraken have scored first in every game and done a fair job neutralizing the Avalanche’s top-heavy lineup. Key depth winger Valeri Nichushkin has been away from the team for personal reasons since after Game 2. Mild-mannered star defensemen Cale Makar was suspended for Game 5 after throwing a late hit in Game 4 that injured (and likely concussed) Kraken 40-goal scorer Jared McCann, a hit that made Makar the subject of much ire on Reddit that night. And though the Avalanche have demonstrated the ability to come back and even pull away from the Kraken, they’ve more often than not struggled to find the rhythm and pace that made them so successful in last year’s playoffs.
Sports fandom as identity is fraught. The Avalanche represent my home state, and won the Stanley Cup their first season in Denver. If I’m going to be a fan of any hockey team, it makes sense for it to be the Avalanche. But becoming too invested in the performance, reputation, and actions of a bunch of people almost half my age is perilous. I like Cale Makar quite a bit. He’s highly skilled but not demonstrative. He can be physical but isn’t a goon. He plays hockey the way I like to see hockey played, the way I would want to play: with skill and precision instead of force. So seeing him make an unjustifiably poor decision on the McCann hit is more than a little disappointing. Not only did he remove himself from Game 5 (an important game his team ended up losing), he also handed people an angle from which to be critical of him—to be critical of something/someone I really like.
That’s a bummer, and it makes me pause for a second before putting on an Avalanche shirt in the morning, as if by wearing the shirt I’m aligning myself with the most negative aspects of this thing I like in addition to the most positive.
It would be remarkable if the Avalanche were able to turn things around, win this series with the Kraken, then roll with that momentum through the rest of the playoffs. Stuff like that has happened before. But it’s so unlikely that part of me would rather see the Kraken win tomorrow, at home in front of their fans. It would be a great story for them, and would allow me to relax and have fun watching the rest of the playoffs.