Denver was deemed "Hockey Capital, USA" after the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup and other local hockey teams won championships in 2022. Has the city lost its hockey cred with a new NBA title?
Last year, Denver proved to be a hockey city with the Colorado Avalanche’s Stanley Cup win, University of Denver’s NCAA Championship and Denver East’s State Championship. It went as far as being named "Hockey Capital, USA." But the Mile High City added basketball to its list of champions with the Denver Nuggets NBA title win this year.
The Nuggets won their first-ever Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy following the hockey craze, which stuck around into the 2022-23 season. But the Avalanche were knocked out in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and DU didn’t even make it to the Frozen Four.
Hockey remained a much-loved sport among Coloradans as most of the Avs home games were sold out at Ball Arena. But so were the Nuggets games.
So have Denver fans shifted sides with the Nuggets' win? Not at all. Basketball fans and hockey fans are two different groups. Some are both but since hockey season coincides with basketball season, it can be tough to keep up with the two together.
But just as fans can be part of both the Avs Faithful and Nuggets Nation, the teams can be each other’s fans too. The Ball Arena roommates have supported each other through their championship wins by showing up at each other’s games and encouraging tweets.
Although the Avs were favored at the beginning of the season to repeat, the team didn’t have the best chance after losing key players to free agency and Gabriel Landeskog to injury. So it was the Nuggets' turn to shine. And the Avalanche couldn’t be happier for their roomies.