Pretty gloomy day here in the Mile High City, where the mood -- for hockey fans, at least -- is as blue as the sky.
It's no different for me. No more practices or games to attend until September, which seems more like four years away than four months.
But the Avalanche put on a heck of a show this season while it lasted, even if it ended all too abruptly. But that's how it is in the Stanley Cup playoffs, especially when it comes to an overtime in a Game 7. Somebody's season is going to come to a screeching halt.
As I wrote in my story for NHL.com, the Wild did to the Avalanche on Wednesday night what Colorado did to a number of teams this season -- along with to the Wild in Games 1 and 5 of the series.
The difference this time was that the Wild's come-from-behind 5-4 overtime win sent the Avalanche home for the summer.
Bottom line: the Avalanche had four one-goal leads, couldn't hold any of them, and Wild goalie Ilya Bryzgalov didn't face a single shot -- not one -- in the final 8:13 of regulation after coming in ice cold to replace injured starter Darcy Kuemper.
"As soon as we saw him go in we talked about putting pressure on him," captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "He hadn’t played in a while. We tried, but at the same time we were up one goal with five minutes left to go. You get so focused on not making any mistakes instead of keep pushing, keep forechecking, and that’s the mistake we made."
Give some credit to the Wild for some ferocious forechecking that wouldn't allow the Avalanche an offensive sniff at crunch time.
The Landeskog-Paul Stastny-Nathan MacKinnon line, so dominant in the first three home games (and invisible on the road, except for Stastny's shorthanded goal in Game 6) was a collective minus-7 Wednesday. Stastny, who had a team-high five goals in the series, gave the Avalanche a 3-2 lead early in the third period, won 10 of 17 faceoffs and came within a whisker of winning it in overtime with a shot that deflected off Bryzgalov's shoulder.
The way this game was going, did anybody really think the lead was safe when Erik Johnson (minus-2 Wednesday, minus-4 in the series) broke a 3-3 tie with 8:44 remaining, 31 seconds before Kuemper left with an undisclosed injury?
"Heartbreaking," is how Matt Duchene described the season-ending loss. "I guess you have to take a learning experience out of it. It should never have gone into overtime. I think we all feel that way. It's a terrible feeling right now."
Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon made a heck of a play with 2:27 to go, taking advantage of a defensive breakdown to tie the game 4-4. (Imagine if the Avalanche could have held on for another minute or so and forced the Wild to pull Bryzgalov for a sixth attacker.)
Spurgeon held onto the puck in the right circle as MacKinnon slid by hoping to block his shot. But Spurgeon waited, then beat goalie Semyon Varlamov, who didn't make enough big saves, to the far side.
"Spurgeon on that goal, he had to show great patience," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. "Mack was out of position right at the start. He showed great urgency going down and tried to block the shot and (Spurgeon) brought it back. That was a gutsy move by him and it paid off."
The Wild continued to press in the overtime and outshot the Avalanche 5-1 with Nino Niederreiter ending it at 5:02 on a 2-on-1 rush.
A few minutes earlier, Stastny nearly scored on the only shot Bryzgalov faced in his 13 minutes in the crease.
"It nicked his shoulder," Stastny said. "It should have gone in. It's one I'll be thinking about for a while. It was back and forth all game. That's how the series was. Once overtime hit it could have gone either way again. It's frustrating, it's tough to take right now. In a couple days I'll digest it and take a look back and be proud of what we started and what we have to keep building on."
Duchene, who had two assists Wednesday and three in two games after returning from his knee injury, said the Avalanche's lack of playoff experience was a factor in sitting back too much while trying to protect the lead.
"What we have to learn, what we have to take away from this at the end of the game like that when we need to clamp it down, we have to execute better with the puck and without it we have to be sharp," he said. "You don't let your heart race as much and you have to stay in control and just get it done. It's too bad we couldn't get it done. We were right there all night. We had the lead the whole game. The one lead they had is the one that wins the game."
Ryan O'Reilly was near tears after the game and bemoaned the fact the Avalanche totaled three goals in losing all three road games.
"Home ice is great, a good thing to have, but you can't win the Cup if you don't win on the road," he said.
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MacKinnon, whose two goals and eight assists came in the first three home games, took the loss hard and blamed himself for the tying goal, but Roy would have none of that.
"Mack had an outstanding year," Roy said. "He's only 18 years old, he's learning. I was happy that he was there. I think Mack learned a lot. He knows what he can do offensively. Now he's learning sometimes defensively he's going to have to do some things a little different. That makes him already a better hockey player. That's what you want. But I don't want any of our players blaming themselves for the loss. We win and we lose as a team and we lost as a team."
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Let's face it, as well as the Avalanche played this season, improving from 29th in the NHL to 52 wins and a Central Division title, this team is not of Stanley Cup championship caliber. Not yet anyway, and there's no disgrace in that.
"As much as we were dreaming maybe it’d be possible to win the Stanley Cup, we knew it’d be tough for us to win the Stanley Cup because we’re not there yet," Roy said. "It’s hard to say that, but it’s a fact. It's a process, it's a learning process.
"It was a great experience this year. It was fun for me to be part of it and one thing we're all proud of is to see the Avs back on top. I think that should motivate us to have another good year next year and to prepare ourselves really well this summer. Seeing our fans excited about the team makes me so happy, and seeing our fans coming back to the building, it was electric out there. It was fun to be part of it. I just want to say thanks to them, thanks for making it fun. They're a big part of it. The players gave everything they had and I think it's a great season for us.
"At the end, unfortunately, injuries were a factor. Losing a guy like (Tyson) Barrie and losing a guy like (John) Mitchell would have probably made the difference for us. Having Dutchie coming late ... but these are not the excuses we want to use. A team is a team and we played like this all year. We always found a way to go through adversity in a great way and we got beat by a team that played really well, a team that was well coached and a team that wanted to win as much as we did."
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Mitchell missed the entire series with a concussion, Duchene the first five games with his knee injury, Barrie most of Game 3 and the final four games following Wild forward Matt Cooke's knee-to-knee hit, and Jan Hejda played all seven games with two broken fingers he sustained in the regular-season finale against Anaheim.
Hejda said three pins were inserted in his thumb.
"I was hoping I can play better than I did," said Hejda, who dropped his stick several times, didn't have a point and was minus-6 for the series. "That was just something you can't really think about, but somewhere in your head it's still a broken thumb. Especially the first three games I didn't play like I expected."
Barrie, who had a breakout season with 13 goals, 25 assists and plus-17 rating, said he felt helpless not being able to play. The Avalanche certainly could have used his help breaking out of the defensive zone and on power plays.
"I think it was one of the toughest things I've ever had to deal with in hockey," he said. "It was so exciting, my first NHL playoffs, and we had some success the first two games. To have to be on the sidelines watching for the rest of it was pretty tough, but I thought the guys played outstanding. I thought we deserved better, but that's hockey."
Barrie said Cooke, who was given a seven-game suspension and will be eligible to return for Game 4 against Chicago, tried to reach out to him.
"At the time I was pretty emotional and I didn't feel like talking to him," he said. "It's the style of game he plays. He plays hard and sometimes he goes over the line. I thought the league responded appropriately. For me, whatever the suspension was, it wasn't going to make my knee heal any faster. It's frustrating, but we've got such a good young team here. Hopefully I'll be a part of it for a long time and we can make some noise in the playoffs in the future."