'This is What You Play For'

The wait is over.
The 2022 Stanley Cup Final between the Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning begins with a 6 p.m. puck drop on Wednesday night for Game 1 at Ball Arena.

The Avalanche charged into their first Stanley Cup Final appearance since 2001 after sweeping the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Final. Since the beginning of the season back at training camp last September, Colorado has had its focus locked in on hoisting the Stanley Cup for what would be the third time in franchise history, come a hopeful June.
Now, they are just four wins away from accomplishing that goal.

"I'm glad we're playing Tampa, we are playing the best," Avs centerman Nathan MacKinnon said at the SCF Media Day on Tuesday afternoon. "It's no Cinderella story. It's two of the best teams in the league going at it and we're really excited for this challenge. It's going to be very, very difficult. But I believe in this group and we believe in each other."
And while the determined group is one step closer to accomplishing that goal, they will certainly have their work cut out for them as they'll have to dethrone the back-to-back champions in the Lightning in order to do so. Tampa Bay advanced to its third-straight Final appearance after defeating the New York Rangers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final.
By advancing past the ECF, the Lightning claimed their 11th-straight playoff series and are looking to cement their dominance with a third Stanley Cup in a row - a feat that hasn't been reached since the legendary New York Islanders squad did so with four-consecutive Cup wins from 1980-83.
"They're a team that's looking to become a dynasty and we're a team that's looking to start a legacy," Colorado defenseman Cale Makar said regarding the matchup. "It's an exciting series and you can't ask for any better. Obviously, you want to beat the best to be the best."
For the Avalanche, this journey to the first Stanley Cup Final appearance in 21 years has been anything but linear. Through lessons of defeat, adversity and tribulations the resolute group has gained an appreciation for the grueling journey and matured in a manner which has now allowed them to benefit from a resilient and even-keeled attitude.
"To win you have to go through heartache sometimes," Avalanche winger Andre Burakovsky said. "It's been fun so far and we haven't really given a team a chance. We just stuck to our game every single series. We haven't really deviated if things haven't gone our way at a certain time."
Come puck drop of Game 1 on Wednesday night in Denver, it's the moment that every player dreams of growing up and a culmination of all the sacrifice, commitment, triumph, adversity, passion and drive that's been implemented to obtain even just the chance to hoist the coveted Stanley Cup.
"This is what you play for, right?" Avs defenseman Josh Manson said. "When you're a kid just playing in the street you dream of someday getting the chance to hoist the Cup. So you can't take these moments for granted."
Every player has their own story, their own path, their own hardships and their own identity that's paved their respective ways to not just reaching the NHL, but staying in it as a regular.

For some, like Erik Johnson, 34, and Gabriel Landeskog, 29 - the two longest tenured veterans on Colorado's roster - the journey has been a longtime coming. For others like Darren Helm and Andre Burakovksy, the only two players on the Avalanche roster to have ever won the Stanley Cup prior (Helm with Detroit in 2008 and Burakovsky with Washington in 2018), they know what it takes to go the distance. And for everyone in between, the unified appreciation for the process is just as important as the journey itself.
"It's something I've learned through my career, that there will be ups and downs," Colorado goaltender Pavel Francouz said. "Every time you are down, you still have to think about the ups that is just coming soon. You have to have good hopes that it's going to come around. I've learned that there's always a blue sky after the storm."
And come Game 1 on Wednesday night as the two forces of nature in the Avalanche and Lightning go head-to-head vying for the ultimate prize, Colorado is committed to seizing the moment and to hopefully welcoming the bluebird skies by completing the task that the group set out to achieve during last September.
"I'm excited for our team and everything that we've accomplished," Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar said. "I'm proud of it, but that's not the end goal. We'll breathe when it's over."