No one saw it coming; not the Avs, probably not even the Red Wings, and certainly not myself.

I decided to put the Avalanche on the May issue of CHI because I believed in this team. Bold words marked the cover saying Restore the Rivalry. Obviously, that did not happen. Before we went to press the Avalanche found themselves down 2-0 to Detroit. That didn’t faze me as I saw no possibility of a sweep—after all the Red Wings did win more games than anyone during the regular season and at home they lost only nine times all year. So big deal, we’re down two games but we’re heading home and we’ll make it a series.

You all know the rest. No fingers deserve to be pointed. Many fans and analysts complained about a lack of heart or effort but realistically the Avs got beat by a superior team—and one that had enough of their key players.

After game four a dejected John-Michael Liles told reporters, “They’re a very good team and they definitely beat us.”
That’s really all you can say after a series sweep like that.

Injuries certainly destroyed any hopes of an Avalanche comeback as the team missed Forsberg, Wolski, Svatos, Smyth and in game four Stasny. This team faced injuries all year and fought and fought. And that is a huge intangible that many don’t consider when talking about an NHL team. Sure, everyone plays better when they can practice together everyday and execute in games. But we often expect more from professional athletes that is often unreasonable. They may be the best hockey players on Earth but they still need to build solid chemistry amongst their lines to compete against players that have the benefit.

The Avalanche appeared to be a completely different team in the Detroit series than they had been in the prior series versus Minnesota. The team looked solid and the injuries were limited in the first round. The X factor however was Theodore. He played on another level against the Wild and we all expected him to carry the team toward the Cup.

However it’s not fair to point the finger at him--although he didn’t play as well as anyone would have liked--because his team didn’t give him much help. Detroit powered by the Avs and had plenty of scoring opportunities. His teammates even defended him after the first few games saying that they needed to do more to help him. It’s easy to play the blame game after such disappointment but it’s more productive to look to the future I don’t regret the cover of CHI as I still hope a rivalry will one day be restored. I mentioned in the story that it was do-or-die time for the Avs. We will find out if that is true in the coming weeks. Forsberg and Sakic, both monumental to the franchise, will decide in the offseason about retirement. Let’s hope they both come back because they still have some quality hockey left in them. There will still be time to restore a rivalry that hockey (and it’s fans) deserves.

If you don’t believe me, just ask the players.

"I won't apologize for beating them like this," Detroit forward Henrik Zetterberg told cbs4denver. "I know they'll come back at us next year."

Let’s hope so.