Archive: Two Decades Ago, Sakic And Avalanche Were Thriving In Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Colorado Avalanche were a major player at this year’s NHL trade deadline. And in in this May 4, 2004 cover story (Vol. 57, Issue 35) from writer Mark Brender, we analyzed Avalanche superstar Joe Sakic, star goalie Patrick Roy, and the state of the Avs in a playoff battle.

(And always remember, you can gain access to THN’s Archive by signing up at THN.com/free.)

Sakic told Brender that Colorado’s late-season acquisitions – forwards Matthew Barnaby and Chris Gratton, and blueliners Ossi Vaananen and Bob Boughner – made Colorado a more robust, playoff-style team.

“Up front, we’ve still got some pretty good players here,” Sakic said. “There’s no real explanation for how we played down the stretch (of the regular season), but I think our whole attitude was we couldn’t wait for the playoffs to start. Sometimes when you’re struggling down the stretch, it’s great, it’s finally over, and you get that excitement level back for the playoffs. I think that’s all we needed.”

Playing without superstar goalie Patrick Roy in the first year of his life post-retirement, Sakic and the Avs found a way to stay competitive. Colorado would lose to San Jose in the second round of the 2004 playoffs, but from Sakic’s perspective in the second round, the Avalanche were thriving.

“For some reason our confidence level was very high this year,” Sakic told Brender. “There was that sense of confidence among the guys. Why that was there, I don’t know why, but it was there. I mean, obviously we’ve still got a long way to go, it was only one round, but hopefully we built something that we can take to another level, because we’re going to have to.”

Vol. 57, No. 35, May 4, 2004

By Mark Brender

In the first season of his retirement, Patrick Roy has been only a phone call away, just the way David Aebischer likes it.

The owner of a major junior team in Quebec, Roy doesn’t get to see all the Avalanche games, but he certainly watches them when they’re playing in Ottawa and Montreal, a trek Colorado last made in mid-March.

Patrick and the protege spoke about a week after that as the Avs and Aebischer were gearing up for the playoffs. Aebischer called and left a message, Roy left a message and eventually they hooked up.

“We go back and forth,” Aebischer says. “We talked a bit about hockey and then of course about other stuff. He just told me what he thought I could do better and things I did well.”

Imagine that. Even in the season when Aebischer finally gets a chance to escape the shadow of arguably the greatest goalie ever, the mentor still mentors and the student still learns. Roy still cares enough to help and Aebischer has enough self-confidence that he can be his own man and listen to the legend.

“Of course you listen to him,” says Aebischer, sounding slightly bemused at the question. “You think about what he said and he’s usually right. Of course you listen.”

Aebischer, 26, clearly paid attention while Roy was working his playoff magic all those years. With a 1.83 goals-against average and a glittering .936 save percentage through a surprisingly easy five-game opening round brush off of Dallas, Aebischer put up Roy-like numbers. The similarity goes further.

“Last summer I was playing golf with Trevor Linden,” recalls Colorado captain Joe Sakic, “and he was saying even last year when Abby was in, you’d come down the ice and he’d almost look like Patrick.

“He’s been great all year. I don’t think he went through one stretch where he struggled.”

The same can’t be said of the Avalanche not that it matters much now. Despite finishing four points behind San Jose in the standings and posting just eight wins over their final 25 games in a late-season swoon, the Avalanche went into their series with an extremely fast Sharks team on even terms at the very least.

Heading into the Dallas series, there were so many reasons for Colorado to lose. Dallas was one of the hottest teams in the league heading into the playoffs, the Avalanche one of the coldest. The Stars boasted Marty Turco, the goalie who a year ago had posted the best GAA in six decades. Colorado had a goalie who had played 35 playoff minutes in his entire life.

The Avs spanked ’em.

“Up front, we’ve still got some pretty good players here,” Sakic says. “There’s no real explanation for how we played down the stretch, but I think our whole attitude was we couldn’t wait for the playoffs to start. Sometimes when you’re struggling down the stretch, it’s great, it’s finally over, and you get that excitement level back for the playoffs. I think that’s all we needed.”

Sakic points to Colorado’s late-season acquisitions forwards Matthew Barnaby and Chris Gratton and blueliners Ossi Vaananen and Bob Boughner for helping make Colorado a bigger, tougher, more playoff-style team.

Grit is one thing, but grit with skill is even better. The other reality the Sharks face is that in Sakic (four goals, six points versus Dallas), center Peter Forsberg (eight points) and a supporting cast of wingers Milan Hejduk, Alex Tanguay and unheralded shifty rookie Marek Svatos not to mention Paul Kariya and maybe even Teemu Selanne the Avs have the most lethal quick strike capabilities of any team left standing.

Easy for the Avs to say it now, but even in the dry spells it was as if they knew they could put it all together. Aebischer and Sakic both said they felt it. You could see it in Sakic’s face after a late March game in Toronto. Colorado essentially got blown out, yet out in the hallway after the game, showered and dressed, Sakic looked like a man without a concern in the world.

“For some reason our confidence level was very high this year,” he says. “There was that sense of confidence among the guys. Why that was there, I don’t know why, but it was there. I mean, obviously we’ve still got a long way to go, it was only one round, but hopefully we built something that we can take to another level, because we’re going to have to.”

Aebischer will be facing the unique pressure that builds on all first-time playoff goalies: the deeper the Avs go into the playoffs, the more the spotlight will focus on the goalie as the one entering uncharted territory.

Before the Sharks series, Aebischer was relaxing by going to movies, watching hockey on television and reading. The novel on the go at the moment is Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress.

If Patrick is watching on satellite, he might think it’s a particularly appropriate selection.

The Hockey News Archive is an exclusive treasure trove of more than 2,640 issues and more than 156,000 articles exclusively produced for subscribers, chronicling the complete history of The Hockey News from 1947 until this day. Visit the archives at THN.com/archive and subscribe today at subscribe.thehockeynews.com