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Los Angeles Kings – The Kings Ice

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Throughout the year, the Sip Advisor will alphabetically travel the National Hockey League (NHL), discovering the best and worst each team has to offer in a variety of subjects. We will also feature a drink based off the franchise. Today, we hit the bright lights of Hollywood… or Hockeywood as it has come to be known, with a look at the Los Angeles Kings:

Establishment Story: The Kings joined the NHL in the 1967 expansion from six to 12 teams. Along with the Oakland Golden Seals, they became the first west coast teams in the league. A fan contest was held to name the team, with the winning entry being Kings, thanks to owner Jack Kent Cooke wanting the franchise to have “an air of royalty”. This is also why the team’s original colour scheme was purple and gold.

Stanley Cups: The Kings have won two Stanley Cups, in 2012 and 2014, defeating the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers, respectively. Prior to that, they had only appeared in one Stanley Cup Final, losing to the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. The Wayne Gretzky years were supposed to bring more success, but the 1993 Finals appearance was preceded by playoff struggles and followed by not making the post-season at all.

Celebrity Fan: With the arrival of Wayne Gretzky in 1988, the Great Western Forum in Inglewood was the place to be, drawing many Hollywood celebrities to games. Actors such as John Candy and Alan Thicke (both transplanted Canadians) could regularly be seen at games, while Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts were spotted on occasion. Today, the likes of Will Ferrell and Snoop Dogg are supporters of the Kings.

Will Ferrell

Super Fan: Original fans who greeted the team at the airport as they arrived to move into their new Los Angeles home dubbed themselves the Kings Court. Supporters groups are still part of the Kings fan experience today, with an official club known as the Royal Army. Royal Army membership perks include a gift from the Kings, access to exclusive events and various discounts.

Mascot: Bailey is a lion, who debuted for the Kings in 2007. He wears jersey number 72, a reference to Los Angeles’ average temperature and was named after Garnet ‘Ace’ Bailey, who was the Kings Director of Pro Scouting, when he was aboard one of the flights crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11. Previously, the Kings mascot was a snow leopard named Kingston, but it was introduced and retired within the same year in 1990.

Tradition: For a team that has existed since the 1967 expansion, I had a surprisingly tough time finding content to fill this section. The Kings current goal song is called Hey Hey by Twilight Trio, while a former track used to celebrate scores was Randy Newman’s I Love LA. For a time, each player on the Kings had their own goal song, with a mix of rap, country, pop and rock songs comprising the list.

Appearances in Media: The Kings have appeared in a couple of movies, including Tooth Fairy and The Love Guru, making Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Justin Timberlake fictional members of the team, as Derek ‘Tooth Fairy’ Thompson and Jacques ‘Le Coq’ Grande, respectively. Wayne Gretzky also rocked Kings paraphernalia in a couple skits as part of his Saturday Night Live hosting gig in May 1989.

Bailey

Events/Scandals: On October 20, 2014, defenseman Slava Voynov was arrested for domestic violence against his wife. He was immediately suspended by the NHL and later charged with a felony count for “corporal injury to a spouse”. In July 2015, Voynov plead guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years probation. In order to avoid deportation, Voynov voluntarily returned to Russia. His six-year, $25 million contract signed in June 2013 was terminated.

Rivalry: The Kings two biggest rivals are their fellow California clubs. First, there’s the Anaheim Ducks, as both teams play within the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Their feud is known as the Freeway Face-Off, as Interstate 5 separates the two locales. Next, is the San Jose Sharks, with the team’s rivalry being part of a Northern vs. Southern California comparison. The Kings beat both teams en route to the 2014 Stanley Cup.

Tragedy: During the 1978-79 season, forward Scott Garland played six games for the Kings, along with 45 contests for their American Hockey League affiliate, the Springfield Indians. That off-season, Garland was killed while driving in Montreal, Quebec, when he blew a tire and crashed into a retaining wall. Garland was only 27 years old. He had previously played for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Player Nicknames: There are some pretty good nicknames from the Kings history. For example, Luc Robitaille was dubbed Lucky, while Bernie Nicholls – a personal favourite of mine from childhood, after he winked at me while watching the Kings warm up for a game against the Vancouver Canucks – was called Pumper, a reference to pumpernickel bread. More recent memorable monikers include The Colonel for Kyle Clifford and Mr. Game 7 for Justin Williams.

LA Rivals

Line: One of the most prolific lines in NHL history was the Triple Crown Line, comprised of Dave Taylor, Charlie Simmer and Marcel Dionne. The trio played together from 1979 to 1984, with the 1980-81 season being their most successful, as the unit combined for 328 points. They became the first line in NHL history with each player recording a 100-plus point season.

Captain: Dustin Brown played his entire 18-season career with the Kings, after being drafted 13th overall by the team in 2003. Brown was named captain in of the Kings in 2008 and held the mantle for both of their Stanley Cup championships. In 2016, the captaincy was passed to Anze Kopitar. In April 2022, Brown announced plans to retire following the playoffs and was named captain for his final regular season contest. He was honoured with a statue outside Crypto.com Arena on the night of his jersey retirement.

Enforcer: When Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Kings, he requested Marty McSorley be part of the deal, ensuring he had someone to watch his back coming along with him to Los Angeles. McSorley knew his role well, piling up a franchise single-season record 399 penalty minutes in 1992-93. McSorley also holds the Kings all-time penalty minute record with 1,846 over two stints with the club.

Family Values: From 1996 to 1998, brothers Jan and Roman Vopat were members of the Kings organization together. Similarly, brothers Mario and Adrian Kempe were both signed with the Kings in 2019, although Mario only played 16 games in the minors, before having his contract mutually terminated, while Adrian has been an NHL mainstay since 2017-18.

triple-crown-line

Returning Players: Luc Robitaille had three stints with the Kings. Drafted by the team in 1984, he spent the first decade of his career with the franchise. After stints with the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers, Robitaille returned to Los Angeles for four more seasons. Robitaille would then move to the Detroit Red Wings for two years, before retiring with the Kings in 2006, wearing the captain’s ‘C’ in his final game.

Short Stint: Jarome Iginla wrapped up his celebrated career with a 19-game stint with the Kings, after being traded to Los Angeles on March 1, 2017. Although he produced six goals and three assists in those contests, Iginla was not re-signed following the season. He announced his retirement on July 30, 2018. The run with the Kings allowed him a final appearance against the Calgary Flames, allowing fans to cheer for the former face of the franchise one more time.

Undrafted: Steve Duchesne was signed by the Kings in October 1984, debuting for the team for the 1986-87 season, where he would be named to the NHL All-Rookie Team. Duchesne played five seasons with Los Angeles, before bouncing around the league for a number of years. He played another 60 games with the Kings in 1998-99. Duchesne’s final three campaigns were spent with the Detroit Red Wings, where he would retire after winning the 2002 Stanley Cup.

Trade: Well, the deal that brought Wayne Gretzky to Los Angeles not only shook the NHL’s foundation, it also changed the entire North American sports landscape. So, I think that has to go here. Gretzky was acquired, along with Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski, in exchange for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, $15 million and three first-round draft picks. The deal is cited as the reason the NHL was able to expand into much of the U.S. over the next decade.

Gretzky Trade

Signing: The Kings best free agent signing was Willie Mitchell, who they landed in 2010. Mitchell’s rugged defensive play greatly helped Los Angeles on their road to both the 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cups. Among the team’s worst signings were Simon Gagne and Ilya Kovalchuk. Gagne was signed to a two-year, $7 million deal, but only managed to appear in 45 games over those two seasons. Kovalchuk returned from Russia to join the Kings, before a messy contract termination in the second season of his three-year pact.

Draft Pick: The Kings have only selected first overall once in franchise history, when they picked Rick Pagnutti in 1967. Pagnutti never played in the NHL. The team has done well with the second overall pick, selecting Jimmy Carson (1986), Drew Doughty (2008) and Quinton Byfield (2020). Carson was used as part of the package to bring Wayne Gretzky to Los Angeles, while Doughty was a leader for the team’s two Stanley Cup championships. Byfield comes to the Kings as a highly-touted prospect.

Holdouts: Speaking of Drew Doughty, prior to the 2011-12 season, the star defenseman needed a new contract. A sticking point in the negotiations was the team not wanting to pay Doughty more than Anze Kopitar’s $6.8 million per year. With the regular season fast approaching – Doughty missed most of the Kings pre-season – the sides finally settled on an eight-year, $56 million deal ($7 million per year), going on to win the 2012 Stanley Cup.

Buyouts: After two seasons with the Kings, defenseman Dion Phaneuf was bought out of the final two seasons of his seven-year, $49 million contract, signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs on December 31, 2013. The buyout was split between Los Angeles and the Ottawa Senators, who had retained 25 per cent of Phaneuf’s salary, when they traded him to Los Angeles. The Kings paid Phaneuf $4.25 million over four years.

Drew Doughty

Unique Game: On September 27, 1991, the NHL staged an outdoor pre-season game in Las Vegas, Nevada. The contest took place between the Kings and the New York Rangers, played on a rink constructed on the parking lot of the Caesars Palace resort. This was the NHL’s first outdoor game and it saw the Kings win 5-2. Temperatures reached as high as 95 °F (35 °C). A rematch between the teams was scheduled for two days later in Charlotte, North Carolina, but was cancelled due to unsafe ice conditions.

Goal: A number of Wayne Gretzky goals remain highlights for the franchise. These include breaking Gordie Howe’s all-time points (1989 – assisting on a Bernie Nicholls marker) and all-time goals (1994) records. There’s also Alec Martinez’s double overtime winner, clinching the 2014 Stanley Cup for the Kings and Daryl Evans OT tally, completing the 1982 Miracle on Manchester triumph, the largest comeback victory in NHL playoff history.

Fight/Brawl: During Game 2 of the Kings 1981 playoffs series against the New York Rangers, a bench-clearing brawl broke out at the end of the first period. The resulting chaos included players not dressed for the game getting involved, such as Nick Fotiu of the Rangers coming down from the stands in a suit to join the fray. Fotiu wasn’t in the lineup because he was serving an eight-game suspension for previously going into the stands to fight fans. The Kings won the game, but the Rangers won the series.

Injury: Tony Granato’s career was almost ended in January 1996, when following a game against the Hartford Whalers, bleeding was discovered on his brain. It did mark the end of Granato’s time with the Kings, but the winger was able to return with the San Jose Sharks the following season. Sadly, head injuries did prematurely end the career of Adam Deadmarsh during the 2002-03 campaign.

Caesars Palace Game

Penalty: During Game 2 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, the Kings were up 2-1 in the game and 1-0 in the series. All was going well until Montreal Canadiens coach Jacques Demers asked for a check of Marty McSorley’s stick. McSorely’s stick had an illegal curve and he was given a minor penalty. Montreal scored the tying goal on that power play and won the game in overtime, going on to win Game 3-5 and clinch the Stanley Cup.

Wildest Story: The Kings went through some serious turmoil in the mid 1990s, when owner Bruce McNall was levied with conspiracy and fraud charges after he swindled six banks of $236 million over 10 years. McNall was sentenced to 70 months in prison, with the Kings ultimately forced to declare bankruptcy in 1995. In the end, you can’t the guy too much, given he was partly responsible for bringing the movie Weekend at Bernie’s to the world as a producer.

Blooper: Although Jonathan Quick is arguably the greatest goalie the Kings have ever had, we all make mistakes. On October 7, 2013, against the New York Rangers, Quick came out of his net to play a puck dumped in from his own zone by Ryan McDonagh of the Rangers. As Quick lost his stick, the puck ricocheted off his blocker and into the net, making for an easy goal. Quick was understandably upset at the gaffe, which became the insurance tally in a Rangers 3-1 win.

Miscellaneous: In September, the Kings will take part in the first ever NHL games to take place in the Southern Hemisphere, when they play two pre-season contests against the Arizona Coyotes in Melbourne, Australia, as part of the 2023 NHL Global Series. Los Angeles has also played international games – mostly exhibition matches – in Austria, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, and China.

Los Angeles Kings: The Kings Ice

The Kings Ice

  • Rim glass with Sugar
  • Sage Leaves
  • 1.5 oz Vodka
  • 0.5 oz Elderflower Liqueur
  • Splash of Lime Juice
  • Dash of Simple Syrup
  • Garnish with a Sage Leaf

This cocktail comes from the Tipsy Diaries blog. I haven’t worked a whole lot with sage as an ingredient, but I liked the earthiness it brought to this cocktail. The drink can be served either on the rocks or martini style.

Colorado Avalanche – Avalanche Shot

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Throughout the year, the Sip Advisor will alphabetically travel the National Hockey League (NHL), discovering the best and worst each team has to offer in a variety of subjects. We will also feature a drink based off the franchise. Today, we may need some oxygen, as we visit the high altitudes of Colorado and try to survive the Avalanche:

Establishment Story: What is now the Colorado Avalanche began as the Quebec Nordiques, one of the original franchises of the World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1972. The Nordiques joined the NHL in 1979, as part of the NHL-WHA merger. The franchise was sold and relocated to Denver, Colorado in 1995 and renamed the Avalanche. Other possible names for the team included Extreme, Blizzards and Black Bears.

Stanley Cups: The Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in their first year in Colorado, helped along by the Avalanche picking up Patrick Roy from the Montreal Canadiens, a double shot at the province of Quebec. The team reached the league pinnacle again in 2001 and 2022, totalling three Stanley Cups. They have won each of their Stanley Cup Finals appearances. As the Nordiques, the franchise also won one WHA Avco Cup in 1977.

Celebrity Fan: South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are Avalanche supporters, as both grew up in Colorado. Another famous fan of the team is baseball Hall of Fame member Larry Walker, who played for the Colorado Rockies for 10 seasons. Walker, a Canadian who grew up also playing hockey, was honoured by the Avalanche for his 2020 Hall of Fame election by being named the team’s honourary emergency back-up goalie for a game.

Nordiques

Super Fan: During the Avalanche’s Stanley Cup-winning 2022 season, one fan was banned from the team’s home games, but it was for a somewhat noble reason. Ryan Clark was caught throwing a small bag of his friend’s ashes onto the ice during a January 8, 2022 contest. The friend was Kyle Stark, a die-hard Avalanche supporter, who died unexpectedly the previous December. Clark admitted the tribute may not have been the best idea, but had no regrets.

Mascot: Bernie the St. Bernard debuted on October 3, 2009, replacing Howler the Yeti, who was retired in 1999 after an issue with an opposing team fan. Bernie wears jersey #1, with a bone used to make the number. The Nordiques mascot was Badaboum, who first appeared for the Rendez-vous ’87 series between NHL All-Stars and the Soviet National Team in Quebec City. Badaboum was a furry blue creature, similar to a seal.

Tradition: For the past few seasons, the Avalanche have used the Blink-182 song All the Small Things as a theme song. For a portion of the track, the audio is cut off, so fans can sing the parts themselves. As the Avalanche made their run to the 2022 Stanley Cup, the tradition was often highlighted by the media. Blink-182 lead singer Mark Hoppus joined the team as they raised the Stanley Cup banner, leading the crowd in a rendition of the tune.

Appearances in Media: In the South Park episode Stanley’s Cup, Stan Marsh is forced to coach a kid’s hockey team, parodying The Mighty Ducks movie. When Marsh’s team is invited to play during the intermission of a Colorado Avalanche-Detroit Red Wings game, the other peewee team no-shows. As consolation, the Avalanche let Marsh’s team play the third period against Detroit, where they get absolutely annihilated, losing 32-2.

All the Small Things

Events/Scandals: Avalanche goalies have a history of being arrested for domestic violence. First, in October 2000, Patrick Roy was detained after an argument with his wife. His case was later dismissed for not meeting the standard of criminal mischief. 13 years later, Semyon Varlamov was arrested and charged with the misdemeanor assault of his girlfriend. The charges were dropped when prosecutors couldn’t prove their case.

Rivalry: As the Quebec Nordiques, the team had a long-standing feud with provincial rivals the Montreal Canadiens, known as the Battle of Quebec. The teams met in the playoffs five times and even battled over TV rights. As for the Colorado Avalanche, their greatest battles occurred with the Detroit Red Wings, as the two teams battled for Western Conference and league supremacy in the late 1990s.

Tragedy: Peter McNab was the color analyst for the Avalanche from their debut in 1995 up until his death from cancer on November 6, 2022. He was 70 years old. McNab played in the NHL for 14 seasons, before moving into the broadcast booth, first with the New Jersey Devils. For all of his contributions to the game, McNab was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2021.

Player Nicknames: Two of the Avalanche’s most legendary players also have the most memorable nicknames in team history. Joe Sakic was known as Mr. Clutch throughout his long tenure with the franchise, always coming up big when it mattered most. Sakic’s former teammate, Peter Forsberg, was dubbed Peter the Great, a nod to the Tsar of Russia from 1682 to 1721.

Joe Sakic

Line: Colorado’s dominant top line over the last few seasons has consisted of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. The trio has piled up points since being combined and were integral members to the Avalanche winning the 2022 Stanley Cup. Two other notable lines were comprised of Alex Tanguay and Milan Hejduk on the wings, with Joe Sakic or Peter Forsberg at center, for the JAM Line and AMP Line, respectively.

Captain: After serving as the Nordiques co-captain for the 1990-91 season, Joe Sakic was named the permanent captain for the 1992-93 campaign and held the mantle through to his retirement in 2009. Another enduring captaincy is that of Gabriel Landeskog, who was the youngest NHL captain ever, when he began his term in 2012. Landeskog is still the team’s captain to this day.

Enforcer: Nicknamed ‘The Sheriff’, Scott Parker patrolled the ice for the Avalanche for 237 games, over two separate stints. During his time with the franchise, Parker tallied 538 penalty minutes, to go along with five goals and 11 assists. Parker was a member of the Avalanche’s 2001 Stanley Cup championship team, suiting up for four games of the team’s playoff run.

Family Values: The Stastny brothers (Peter, Marian and Anton) starred for Quebec through the early 1980s, piling up points as the team’s top line. The Nordiques even helped the brothers defect from Czechoslovakia to play hockey in Canada, a move which opened the door for other Iron Curtain players to follow. Later, Paul Stastny, son of Peter, was drafted by Colorado, playing eight seasons with the Avalanche.

Stastny

Returning Players: Peter Forsberg played 10 seasons for the Nordiques/Avalanche franchise, before moving on to the Philadelphia Flyers and later Nashville Predators. He then sat out most of the 2007-08 season, recovering from foot surgery, before rejoining the Avalanche for nine games. After two seasons in Sweden, Forsberg attempted an NHL comeback with Colorado, but only lasted two games, citing his chronic foot issues as a reason for his retirement.

Short Stint: When Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne came to the Avalanche for the 2003-04 season, the reunion of the two star players was supposed to bolster an already strong team. Kariya and Selanne both underperformed, though, and Colorado was eliminated from the playoffs in the second round. Following the 2004-05 NHL lockout, Kariya would sign with the Nashville Predators, while Selanne returned to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Undrafted: Peter Stastny’s Hall of Fame career began by fleeing Czechoslovakia with his pregnant wife, assisted by Nordiques President and CEO, Marcel Aubut. Stastny dominated the NHL upon arrival, breaking the record for most points in a season by a rookie, including a two consecutive game effort of seven goals and seven assists. Stastny would also play with the New Jersey Devils and St. Louis Blues over 15 seasons.

Trade: The greatest move the franchise ever executed was sending Eric Lindros to the Philadelphia Flyers for a massive package of assets. This included Peter Forsberg, Ron Hextall, Steve Duchesne, Mike Ricci, Kerry Huffman, Chris Simon, two first round draft picks and $15 million. While Lindros was a dominant player in the league for a time, the Avalanche would go onto win two Stanley Cups during Lindros’ career.

Forsberg

Signing: In 2019, the Avalanche took an $850,000 chance on forward Valeri Nichushkin, who was coming off being bought out by the Dallas Stars, following a season where he failed to score over 57 games. Nichushkin rebounded with Colorado, finding the form that made him the 10th overall pick of the 2013 draft. In 2021-22, Nichushkin recorded 25 goals and 27 assists, as well as contributing 15 points in the team’s Stanley Cup victory. This resulted in an eight-year, $49 million contract extension.

Draft Pick: The Nordiques/Avalanche have done very well with the first overall selection, including three consecutive top choices from 1989 to 1991 (Mats Sundin, Owen Nolan and Eric Lindros). The franchise also selected Nathan MacKinnon first overall in 2013. Additionally, choosing defenseman Cale Makar at fourth overall in 2017 may go down as one of the greatest draft steals of all-time.

Holdouts: Going into the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, Eric Lindros and his camp made it clear he would not play for the Nordiques, despite them owning the first overall selection and Lindros being the clear cut favourite to be picked. The Nordiques took Lindros anyway, resulting in the player refusing to put on the team’s jersey. At the 1992 NHL Entry Draft, the Nordiques traded Lindros to the Philadelphia Flyers, ending the impasse.

Buyouts: Three years in a row, from 2016 to 2018, the Avalanche used buyouts on aging defensemen, ending the Colorado tenures of Brad Stuart, Francois Beauchemin and Brooks Orpik in subsequent seasons. The Stuart buyout cost the team $2.4 million, while the Beauchemin and Orpik releases cost $3 million each. Orpik’s buyout came just weeks after he was traded to the Avalanche, allowing him to return to the Washington Capitals on a cheaper deal.

Lindros

Unique Game: From 1997 to 2016, the Avalanche played a pre-season game almost each year, dubbed Frozen Fury, against the Los Angeles Kings in Las Vegas. Colorado also returned to Quebec City for an exhibition game in 2002 against the Montreal Canadiens. The franchise has played a few outdoor games, including the 2016 Stadium Series vs. Detroit Red Wings, 2020 Stadium Series vs. Los Angeles Kings and NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe Saturday vs. Vegas Golden Knights.

Goal: Defenseman Uwe Krupp was injured for much of the Avalanche’s inaugural 1995-96 season, returning just in time for the end of the campaign. Good thing, as Krupp would score the winning goal in the third overtime period of Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals versus the Florida Panthers, clinching Colorado’s first championship. In doing so, Krupp became the first German-trained player to win the Stanley Cup.

Fight/Brawl: Two of the NHL’s most memorable brawls involved the Nordiques/Avalanche franchise. First, the Good Friday Massacre between the Nordiques and Montreal Canadiens occurred during the 1984 playoffs, resulting in 11 ejections and 252 penalty minutes. Second, the 1997 Brawl in Hockeytown between the Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings was the outcome of tempers boiling over from the previous year’s playoff meeting.

Injury: When the Avalanche played the Vancouver Canucks on March 8, 2004, Colorado’s Steve Moore was a marked man for his previous elbow on Canucks captain Markus Naslund. With the Avalanche up 8-2, Canucks players began targeting Moore, with Todd Bertuzzi punching him from behind. As a result of the punch, the players falling to the ice and a pile up that ensued, Moore suffered three fractured neck vertebrae, a concussion and cuts to his face. This ended Moore’s career and led to a lawsuit settlement.

Good_Friday_Massacre

Penalty: Speaking of the Brawl in Hockeytown, it was all precipitated by Claude Lemieux’s hit-from-behind on Detroit’s Kris Draper in Game 6 of the 1996 Western Conference Finals. Draper ended up with a concussion, broken jaw and shattered cheek and orbital bones. Lemieux was ejected from the contest and subsequently suspended by the NHL for two games.

Wildest Story: Further complicating the Eric Lindros trade saga, the Nordiques had actually arranged two different deals for the coveted player. The other transaction was negotiated with the New York Rangers and an independent arbiter was needed to settle the matter. The Flyers deal was enforced, while the Rangers offer of Tony Amonte, Alexei Kovalev, Sergei Nemchinov, James Patrick, either Mike Richter or John Vanbiesbrouck, multiple first-round draft picks, and $20 million was voided.

Blooper: Patrick Roy was one of the greatest goalies in NHL history, but he is also remembered for this major error, made during the 2002 Western Conference Finals, against the Detroit Red Wings. Roy made a sprawling glove save, but when he went to show off the stop, he dropped the puck, allowing the Red Wings to score. The Avalanche, who were leading the series 3-2, went on to lose this game and the next, with the Red Wings advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Miscellaneous: Another great trade for the Avalanche, was bringing in defenseman Ray Bourque from the Boston Bruins in 2000. Bourque waited 23 long seasons to finally win the Stanley Cup. When the Avalanche finally did so in 2001, captain Joe Sakic didn’t hesitate to immediately pass the trophy to Bourque, once it was presented to him. The joy and relief on Bourque’s face, as he skated the championship around the ice was evident. This would mark the end of Bourque’s NHL career, going out on top.

Colorado Avalanche: Avalanche Shot

Avalanche Shot

  • 0.75 oz Raspberry Vodka
  • 0.75 oz Blue Curacao

This is the first shooter of the NHL project, as I could find no suitable cocktails. You’re supposed to drop the shot into a glass of Red Bull, but I don’t like working with that ingredient. The colours of the shot replicate Avalanche jerseys hues.