Colorado Avalanche Fans: A Nation Divided

The Stanley Cup Finals action is heating up, though, of course, Colorado Avalanche fans are watching from the sidelines. The young Tampa Bay Lightning are taking on the well-seasoned Chicago Blackhawks who already have two Stanley Cups in the last five years (2010, 2013).

There probably are some Colorado Avalanche fans who are not watching the Stanley Cup Finals. Baseball is on right now. The weather is finally (pretty) good, and there’s a lot of activities to enjoy in Colorado. However, Avs fans are hockey fans, and many Colorado Avalanche fans are watching.

And, judging by Twitter, Avs Nation is a nation divided.

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There is no obvious affiliation for the Avs Nation to have with either team. The Chicago Blackhawks are Central Division rivals for the Avs. However, that just means Avalanche fans are more familiar with this team. Plus, the Avalanche are built pretty similarly.

Of course, like the Lightning, the Avalanche are a young team. And they are not natural rivals for Colorado. Not only that, the Avs Nation has no negative experience with Bolts fans as we do with Hawks fans.

So, as Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals took place in Chicago’s United Center, Avalanche fans showed their divided loyalties on Twitter.

Avalanche Fans for the Tampa Bay Lightning

Avs fans cheering for the Lightning appreciated that Tampa Bay went up first.

Some Avs fans focused on Chicago goalie Corey Crawford.

Some tweets were just generally supportive for the Lightning.

A little pessimism aimed at the Blackhawks from Mile High Sticking writer Jeremy Lambert:

Avalanche Fans for the Chicago Blackhawks

There actually are a few Avalanche fans who are cheering for the Blackhawks. However, the majority of them were pretty quiet on Twitter tonight. A couple Avs fans — with whom I had the pleasure of attending a Watch Night during the season — held the fort for Chicago followers:

Some Other Notable Tweets from the Game

Twitter in general was pretty lively with tweets from the game.

Twitter personality Anthrax Jones (and Avalanche fan — go figure) went off on a tangent:

He was referring to a former Avalanche player whose career was cut short because of injury. A couple other Avalanche fans focused on a former Colorado player, Kyle Cuminsy.

Kyle Cuminsky was drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in 2005. He spent five seasons with Colorado, spent three years in the minors and signed with the Blackhawks before this season. And then this happened:

This is supposed to be a celebration of the Tampa Bay Lightning win.

Gabriel Landeskog Tweet

In news completely unrelated to the Stanely Cup Finals game, Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog tweeted the following picture of himself today:

Avalanche fans saw the word “recovery” and noted the… weird looking contraption on Landeskog’s legs and lit up Twitter with nervous questions. So much so that Landeskog, an intermittent tweeter, sent another tweet just a short while later:

Turns out the odd contraption on his legs is a NormaTec Pro Recovery System. The massaging pressure in the leggings is supposed to “improve circulation and reduces swelling” to help pro athletes “train harder and recover faster.”

Seeing tweets of our captain in weird leg braces certainly brought Avs Nation back together.

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More from Mile High Sticking

• Could Colorado Avalanche move on from Pavel Francouz next offseason?
• 4 goalies to replace Pavel Francouz if he has to miss time
• Colorado Avalanche make sneaky signing with Tatar
• Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog could return in 2023-24 playoffs
• Colorado Avalanche rookie face-off tournament roster