Avalanche!!!
Jeremy Levy back with you. I am really excited to report that the Colorado Avalanche went to the Stanley Cup finals. “You can go home, but you can’t Stay Here!” This Party Is Over!” The Avalanche WON the Stanley Cup Finals!” “They did it! The Colorado Avalanche are Stanley Cup Champions! The final score of the last game was 2 to 1!” said Conor McGahey, announcer of the Colorado Avalanche on Altitude Sports radio 92.5. This is something the Avalanche haven’t done in 21 years. The last time they were in the Stanley Cup finals was in 2001. I wasn’t a fan back then. I started becoming a fan in 2009 or 2010. Mark Moser said “those of you that are young hockey fans, you don’t know what you are in for. This is going to get fun.” Mark said this on Moser, Lombardie and Kain on Altitude 92.5. Bret Kain is going to learn how much fun the Stanley Cup Finals are this year. Mark Moser said that he is going to learn very quickly. I learned right along with Bret. I am going to take you back through the journey of which this Colorado Avalanche have been this year in the playoffs if you didn't follow along from a radio listener's perspective.
The Colorado Avalanche started playing the Nashville Predators. They won that series in 4 games. I e-mailed Dan Mandis who is the program director of WWTN radio in Nashville and he said that Nashville was a great Hockey town. The Avalanche were very resilient in beating the Predators. Then it was on to a 6-game series with the St. Louis Blues. The Avalanche lost 2 games in that series. St. Louis won a game 5 to 4 in Denver at Ball Arena. I tried e-mailing one of the hosts of the flag ship station Michelle Smallman to ask her about the atmosphere was in St. Louis but didn’t get a response back. The Avalanche went to St. Louis the next game and won 2 nights later to move on to the Edmonton Oilers. The Avalanche won that series in 4 games. I also tried to get a comment from their radio station Ched 630 to try and get a comment but wasn’t able to.
The Avalanche went on to face the Tampa Bay Lightning- 2 time defending Champion. Mark Moser was looking on Monday June 13, before the series, at the games the Avalanche have won against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He said they won one game 3 to 2 and one game 4 to 3. Mark Moser and Bret Kain were talking about the goaltender for Tampa. They were saying that he is a very good goalie. The Avalanche have beaten him, so they know that they can beat him. Bret Kain mentioned the Avalanche need to mind their P’s and Q’s. They might have trouble if Tampa Bay scores 3 or 4 goals in a game. It might be difficult for the Avalanche to come back from that. That was Bret’s and Mark Moser’s opinion.
The flag ship station for the Tampa Bay lightning is 970 WFLA in Tampa. I heard from Katie Butchino, who works for 970 radio in Tampa. Her quote to me was " I am a huge hockey fan. It’s impossible not to be in Champa Bay! We are SO excited here in Tampa! Hockey fans here are incredible and very underrated! People don’t realize how much this city loves the Tampa Bay Lightning. The entire city is ready to be 3X champions. It’s very energetic here right now. It you get the chance to be inside the Amalie Arena for a hockey game, even if you’re not a hockey fan, you’ll leave one - it’s unlike any sporting event I’ve ever been to. Incomparable!
The Avalanche went up 2 games to zero in the Lightning Avalanche series. They got an impressive win on Saturday June 18, 2022. It was a shut out 7 to nothing. Altitude Sports radio 92.5 the flagship station for the Colorado Avalanche had special coverage on Saturday the 18th of June with Josh Dover and Josh Grizmer, the producer of the mid-day Masters of the Mid-day “us”. Josh Grizmer asks some great questions of guests. It was great to hear from Lauren Gardner who now works for the NHL network, and the MLB Network who also worked for Altitude TV back in the day. She is now working in Florida. She was the best guest in my opinion on the show with Josh and Josh. She said she is hoping to get out to Colorado for games 6 or 7 if there is one. She likes many of the Avalanche players. Altitude sports radio is going to broadcast after the game until after midnight Josh Grizmer will be on after Between the Pipes is over tonight until after midnight. Bret Cain with Mark Springer will be on from 3 until 5:30 on Saturday night. That is a great combination of hosts. In my opinion 104.3 the fan has the second-best coverage of the Colorado Avalanche. The Friday before the second game of the series 104.3 The fan had 2 familiar voices on that morning on the morning show Mike Evans and Sandy Clough. They were together broadcasting in 2001 when the Avalanche were in the Stanley cup finals. Mike and Sandy were remembering when they were together for the 2001 run to the Stanley cup. They went to New York for 2 of the games. They went to a Yankee game together. Mike Evans remembered he got a little bit mouthy with some of the fans. Sandy Clough said the Avalanche have a chance to have a Stanley cup final game at home just like they did in 2001. Sandy seemed to think that this series is going 7 games. He was wrong. They got it done in 6 games Sandy Clough was a guest on the Dan Jacobs show which airs weekends on 104.3 the fan and he said that the 2001 Avalanche had great players on it as well as this team. He said that the 2001 New Jersey Devils were better than this year's Tampa Bay Lightning team is. Dan was asking the question of his guests on fathers day weekend which team was better the 2001 Avalanche or this years Avalanche. It is hard for me to say because I wasn’t a fan of the 2001 team. Dan seemed to think that Kale Makar would be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. I agree with him on that.
On Sunday June 19, John Davis and Rachel from 104.3 the Fan are on talking about the impressive game last night. Rachel seems to think that Tampa is going to win game 3 on Monday night. John isn’t sure about that. I think John and Rachel make a great team together. The Avalanche did lose game 3 in Tampa, but they came back with an impressive win on Wednesday night June 22, 2022. I love Connor McGayhey’s call of game 4 “Where did the puck go?” Peter McNab who is the color commentator saw that it went in with Nelson Kadri. “It went in!” with Conor’s voice cracking. Kadri had been out for the 3 weeks but was able to come back for game 4. Andy Lindahl said he was tired of the Tampa coaches complaining there were too many guys on the ice. Vick Lombardi and Bret Cain were impressed with the Avalanches win on Wednesday night. They both thought Tampa was going to win It was incredible. They thought it was going to be this kind of series through out the games. Vic Lombardi was so excited that he couldn’t sleep the previous night. Vic got up early to join Bret in the 6 AM hour of the Bret Kain Show. Warm up skate for the Avalanche on the night of June 24, 2022 was electric. Connor McGahey said he has never seen it like this. Connor also said during the pregame show that the Avalanche are prepared for this. He expects a prideful game from Tampa Bay. Don’t think that Tampa is going to go quietly. Conor also said if he could wave his magic wand he would have Gabe Landeskog to have a big game tonight. I agree with that. He is my favorite player. The most important key for today's game is don’t let the moment be to overwhelming for the Avalanche. I am looking forward to finding out if they do win the cup tonight. I agree with that as well. They lost game 5 but were able to come back to Tampa and win game 6. Downtown Denver has been busy with people Hockey fans are so excited to have their team back in the playoffs and being successful. My Dad has been telling me he has seen pictures of people celebrating downtown.
The Colorado Avalanche had a parade Thursday June 30, 2022, to celebrate winning the cup. KOA radio’s Colorado’s morning news with Marty Lenz was broadcasting live Thursday morning. Mike Rice was along as well for this special morning. Altitude Sports radio was broadcasting as well. The most fun highlight for me being a listener was on Altitude Sports radio when Peter McNabb was joking with Mark Moser about his singing with the fans. I thought his singing was good. Anne from ABC 7 news and Peter McNabb didn’t like Mark singing. I thought that Jarod Bednar’s speech was the highlight of the parade. I also loved Gabe Landeskog’s speech as well. All in all it was a great Avalanche season. The question that has been raised now on KKFN 104.3 on this forth of July weekend by John Davis and his co-host filling in for Zach Bye and Brandon Stokley is which team between the Nuggets and the Bronco’s will be the next one for a championship? I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to find out. Thanks for tuning in.