'This Is Why You Play'

It all comes down to this.
The NHL's "second season" is officially underway as the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs kicked off on Monday night and the Colorado Avalanche's conquest to defend the Cup and - hopefully - repeat begins on Tuesday night against the Seattle Kraken.

On Monday afternoon at Ball Arena, the Avalanche held their final tune-up practice before their postseason journey officially begins. It was quite the journey for the Avalanche to get to this point.
The team faced a plethora of challenges throughout the regular season, everything from the shortest offseason in NHL history, enduring a grind of a schedule, suffering a surplus of injuries throughout the lineup (including the absence of captain Gabriel Landeskog, who will not play in playoffs), having utilized a grand total of 43 players in their lineup and despite having faced all of that adversity, the Avalanche still ascended to atop of the Central Division standings for the third-straight season.
Now, the real fun begins.
"This is why we play," Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar said. "All the 82 games we just played for me, are just preparation to get to this point. It's about figuring out who plays where and with whom and the job that they're going to do, what they do well and try to put them in all those positions.Then, really just developing the habits that it takes to win hockey games at this time of year. It's a lot of prep, you put a lot of hard work as a group of individuals into putting yourself in the best position to succeed come this time of the year so there should be nerves. Guys have just basically gone to work for a year to try to get back to this spot. If there's some jitters it's a good thing."

While the regular season was especially taxing, Colorado is hoping to leverage that insight from having overcome the extensive adversity to their advantage as they embark upon the organization's six-straight postseason berth.
"Well, [facing adversity] will be nothing new to us come playoff time," Bednar said. "This team has had to grind and fight for every win and lots of wins didn't come easy. We found different ways to do that and that's what you have to do come playoff time. I think one of the things that this team has done is they've paid special attention to the defending details and what we have to do on offense. We've been meeting that standard here recently and playing pretty well. So that's going to have to continue, it's going to have to continue to improve even over the course of the playoffs."
And while the Avalanche is returning a 18 players - 19 including Landeskog, though he won't dress - from the team's 2022 Stanley Cup-winning roster, the group is hoping to tap into their experience of knowing what it takes to go the full distance and become champions once more this June. And after enduring a grueling regular season that presented physical and mental tests for the group, the Avalanche feel refreshed and revitalized heading into what many noted is, 'the best time of year,' despite knowing how much more intense and higher the stakes are in the playoffs.
"It's just so much harder [than the regular season]." Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson - who is expected to return from injury for Game 1 on Tuesday, said. "It's a battle every night. And if you think about the fact that you played until the end of June last year, then you come in and you start all over again after celebrating a little bit that summer, you maybe didn't get to reset as as much as other seasons, and then you come back and do that grind [of the regular season] all over again. But at the same time, it's the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This is what you play for."
There's a reason it's called "the second season," also because no matter how a team did in the regular season, playoffs essentially offer a clean slate for every group to start as Mikko Rantanen described it, "at 0-0."
For some of the Avalanche's players who have little-to-no postseason experience and weren't members of last year's Cup-winning run like; Ben Meyers or Denis Malgin, it's exhilarating to be on the cusp of such a historic tradition of fierce competition.
"I'm excited, I'm really, really excited," Malgin said. "We're gonna give everything we have every game so I'm just going to be excited to be a part of it."
Malgin has yet to play in a postseason game, but was with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs - that were played in a bubble due to the COVID-19 virus - but the team suffered a First-Round exit.
So now having occupied regular playing time in Colorado's lineup in both a top-six and bottom-six role, Malgin is eager for his first taste of playing in the postseason and experiencing the atmosphere at Ball Arena.
"The whole season here the [atmosphere] has been unbelievable. "I'm so excited to see how it's gonna be in the playoffs."

And while the Avalanche have a target on their backs as the defending Stanley Cup champions, the team isn't shying away from the challenge, it's not in their DNA. After continuously rising to the challenges presented throughout the duration of the regular season, showing grit and a "workmanlike" mentality as Avalanche General Manager Chris MacFarland noted, the team's goal hasn't wavered.
The team knows what it takes to win, but they also know how difficult it is to achieve and how thin the margins are along the way. But even all that considered, the team is confident in the standards they've set for themselves and their ability to show resilience in the wake of adversity.
The Avalanche are ready to defend the Stanley Cup.
"For me it's not about what you used to do someplace else, or last year," Bednar said. "It's about what's right in front of you. And the goal is the same. You've got to go try and prove yourself every day and you just want to make sure you're doing everything you possibly can not take anything for granted. Bringing your best every night is a key component to winning at this time of year."