On the what might be the eve of the Los Angeles Kings winning their first ever Stanley Cup, this blogger, with the help of some of the fans who witnessed it, reminisces on June 9, 2001 when Ray Bourque and the Avs beat, ironically, the New Jersey Devils 3-1 to win the Stanley Cup.
Thanks to Larry Raehl, Cheryl Bradley, Joey Sueyshi and all the others who helped on this piece.
2001: An Avs Odyssey
They had done it. With a 3-1 game seven win over the New Jersey Devils, Ray Bourque had won the Stanley Cup.
After 22 years, Bourque was lifting the 35-pound cup that suddenly felt light as a feather, the tears on his face washing away all the years of pain and anguish.
2001 was the year of destiny, the year that the Avs were going to win Bourque that first cup. They were going to do it or they were going to die trying. From the very moment the Avs were knocked out of the playoffs during the third round of the Stanley cup playoffs, they were on a mission: Mission 16W.
It takes 16 wins in the NHL playoffs to win the cup. Any less and you’re left watching as another team takes a turn around the ice lifting the cup. For the Avs, that was not a possibility.
Bourque was acquired on March 6, 2000, from the Boston Bruins, the team to which he had devoted 21 years of his life, with the intended purpose of winning his first Stanley Cup.
To kick off that year, the Avalanche painted a slogan over the coaches’ board in the locker room that simply stated “It’s All About Commitment.”
That was the season laid out in four words but really it was all about one word: commitment. It was a commitment to Bourque, commitment to the team and a commitment to Mission 16 W.
“Every time June 9 rolls around, I know exactly who’s going to call me that night,” Bourque said to the Denver Post’s Terry Frei. “(Forward) Shjon Podein calls me every year on that night and we just reminisce.”
There’s a lot to reminisce on what will probably be the most memorable year in Avalanche history, or at the very least, one of them.
In that year, Bourque made one last visit to Boston as a member of the Avalanche, Joe Sakic won the Hart trophy for Most Valuable Player in the regular season and Patrick Roy became the all-time winningest goaltender and won the Conn Smythe as MVP of the playoffs. The Avs also won the President’s trophy as the NHL’s best regular season team, giving them home ice advantage throughout the playoffs.
It did not come easy though, as championships seldom do in the sporting industry. The Avs were nearly eliminated in the second round by the seventh seed Los Angeles Kings. To make matters worse, mere hours after their game seven triumph over the Kings, star center Peter Forsberg collapsed during the team’s postgame dinner.
During the crucial game 7, Forsberg’s spleen burst and it was only after the adrenalin wore off that he realized it, taking one of the Avs’ most potent scoring threats off the ice for the rest of the playoffs. It was then, that doubt started to creep in.
“I thought it would to a ‘too good to be true/too much like a movie ending’ to happen,” Colorado native Cheryl Bradley said.
Despite everything, the movie ending came true and Bourque had his happy ending in the form of a cup. The Avs overcame Forsberg’s absence with help from Sakic and some timely contributions from young stars Alex Tanguay, Chris Drury and Milan Hejduk to dispatch the St. Louis Blues in five games before beating the Devils in 7 games to accomplish Mission 16W.
“My favorite memory was probably being able to win two playoff rounds without Forsberg in the lineup,” Chicago native and Avs fan Larry Raehl said. “The ability of Sakic to carry that team and the clutch scoring of Drury.
For the players it was a year on a mission but for the fans, it was the most fantastic year to watch it unfold, especially for those who followed the Avs long before they were even the Avs, back when they were still the Quebec Nordiques. Raehl was one of those fans, tracing his love of the team back to 1979.
“My father took me to see the Nordiques in 1979 when they played the Blackhawks at the old Chicago Stadium,” Raehl said. “They had just entered the league from the World Hockey Association.”
Even though he was just 11, he was hooked immediately.
“I loved the uniforms and (instantly) became a diehard fan,” Raehl said.
Raehl still has no problem remember that day 11 years ago, just as well as his first game watching the Nordiques.
“The 2001 team was a powerhouse,” Raehl said. “1996 (the first year the Avs won the cup) was great because it was ‘new’ but 2001 was even better.”
Since then, no other Avs team has come close to the level of skill, determination and focus that was that team.
“I think we can win cups again for sure but just the intangibles that Ray Bourque and his Mission 16W brought were very special indeed,” Avalanche blogger Joey Sueyshi said. “It’s not often that you have living legend making one last run for a championship and virtually everyone (outside New Jersey) behind him.”
Looking back, that roster had two rookie of the year winners in, a four-time cup-winning goaltender, three times as the MVP of the playoffs. Their captain finished his career eighth in overall scoring, joining names like Wayne Gretzky Mark Messier and Mario Lemieux.
Total, there are two players (Bourque and Roy) that have already been inducted into the hall of fame. Sakic, Forsberg, Adam Foote and possibly Hejduk could join them shortly. To push them over the top, they acquired another future hall of famer: defenseman Rob Blake from the Kings in March 2001. The entire team was stacked with all of them pulling on the same rope with the same mission in mind.
Bourque played 21 years on a Bruins team that was not in the playoffs three times, two of them after he was traded to the Avalanche. He had been to the conference finals three times and the cup finals twice before winning in 2001. Bourque’s journey was tough enough to make him laugh reading Homer’s “Odyssey.”
At the end of his career, Bourque had played 1,826, 214 in the playoffs. He scored 1,579 points, 410 goals and put 6,206 shots on net, all in the regular season. Bourque spent 1,141 minutes of his career in the penalty box. Yet all those times sitting watching on the bench in the box could never compare to the minutes he spent sitting on the sidelines and watching other players celebrate with the thing he wanted most of all: the Stanley Cup.
There isn’t an “a” long enough, even in the Bostonian accent to emphasize how hard it was for Bourque. That’s why Sakic’s decided to hand the cup straight to the man who had been waiting so long to lift it. When Bourque lifted the cup that first time, it resonated as a memory for Avalanche fans.
“(I have) so many favorites but the biggest has to be Bourque raising that cup for the first time,” Raehl said.
Colorado Avalanche Blogger • 
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