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Sakic welcomes Stanley Cup or bust mentality

January 12, 2021, 3:56 PM ET [1 Comments]
Rick Sadowski
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSSArchiveCONTACT
It isn’t exactly like the glory days for the Avalanche, but they are taking a Stanley Cup or bust attitude into this season, which begins Wednesday against St. Louis at Ball Arena.

“What I like is that’s the way our players feel, and we feel we have as good a shot as anybody else in the league,” general manager Joe Sakic said Tuesday. “It’s not just step on the ice and win games. You got to get better as the year goes on.

“I like where our players mentality is, that’s their expectation. It’s good to be in a position where your players feel like that, that’s their expectation, and it is for all of us. I’d much rather be in that position than a few years ago where you’re just trying to get better rebuilding and getting into the playoffs.

“We have expectations and as a player that’s what you want. You want to come to the rink every day with that expectation. I think it brings out the best in everybody.”



“We like the team we have, the players believe, they expect to compete for the Cup, they want to win the Cup,” Sakic said. “When you have all those ingredients, you have a good chance. You got to be playing your best hockey as the year goes on and you definitely got to get breaks with health.”

The Avalanche are especially deep up front and on defense with the additions of Brandon Saad and Devon Toews, and eventually 2019 first-round pick Bowen Byram, who will be able to enter the practice facility on Saturday after playing in the World Junior Championship tournament and completing his mandatory quarantine after arriving from Canada.

Sakic doesn't believe goaltending is a weak link with Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz. Grubauer missed 20 regular-season games with lower-body injuries and he sustained a groin injury against Dallas in the opening game of the Western Conference second round and missed the rest of the series. Francouz missed the last three games with hip and knee injuries.

“I have a lot of confidence in our team, in our goalies,” he said. “Listen, they both got hurt last year. During the course of the year they both had tremendous years, great numbers. Unfortunately, when both goalies go down it hurts your chances, that’s the realistic thing.

“Obviously we had Patrick Roy, one of the best to ever play -- in my mind the best ever to play that position -- so we were spoiled,” Sakic said of his playing days that produced two championships.

“We really believe we have two real good goalies. They had great numbers and we expect the same from them, and we feel in front of them we improved our team too, so we should limit even more scoring chances and play that puck possession game and carry the play. We have a lot of faith in both goaltenders.”

Defenseman Erik Johnson remained unfit to practice Tuesday and won’t be available Wednesday. Conor Timmins is expected to replace him in the lineup.

Coach Jared Bednar said opening night is still special even though spectators won’t be in the building. The Avalanche haven’t played here since March.

“Hopes are high, guys have put in a long offseason training to get ready for this,” he said. “Excitement, jitters, all the stuff that comes with opening night. With the exception of fans cheering us on in our building I think all those feelings and emotions that the players normally go through, they’re still there.”

Here’s center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare:

“The fact that we won’t have fans makes it a little bit sad in a way, especially at home, because you expect everybody to be there buzzing, but in this situation it’s the nature of the game now with COVID. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a game with fans, so maybe we won’t realize it too much, I hope.

“It’s still the opening game and we’re dying to start, so it’s still going to be exciting.”



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