Colorado Avalanche: 4 Forgotten Facts about Uwe Krupp
Colorado Avalanche retired defenseman Uwe Krupp once made the most important play in team history. Let’s recover that and other forgotten memories.
Longtime Colorado Avalanche fans will remember Uwe Krupp as one of the most important Avs players ever even though he only played 144 games across three seasons for the team. Or, rather, they’ll concede he made one of the most important plays in Avalanche history.
Krupp was born in Cologne, West Germany because in 1965, there was a distinction. Despite being a late-round draft pick — 214th overall in 1983 by the Buffalo Sabres — Krupp played 729 NHL games across 16 seasons. And he collected a few honors along the way. He played for five different franchises.
Krupp’s entrance into the franchise was relatively inauspicious. He came to the team from the New York Islanders via a draft-day trade in 1994 — that would have been the Quebec Nordiques.
His exit from the franchise was equally inauspicious. The Nashville Predators claimed Krupp in the 1998 Expansion Draft and quickly traded his rights to the Detroit Red Wings. Yeah, the Detroit Red Wings.
Uwe Krupp, Uwe Krupp… why does that name ring so familiar in Avs Nation? Hopefully you haven’t really forgotten this fact about Krupp, but let’s start with the most important one first.
Krupp Scored the Cup-Winning Goal in 1996
The Colorado Avalanche brought the first-ever professional sports trophy to the state when they won the Stanley Cup at the conclusion of their inaugural season in Denver. Joe Sakic won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
But it was Uwe Krupp who scored the game-winning goal in Game 4, thus bringing sport’s most celebrated trophy to Colorado.
The Avalanche were in Miami playing the Florida Panthers. Florida was down 3-0 in the series. In Game 3, goalie Patrick Roy made his famous declaration of “No more rats” after the rain of plastic rodents annoyed him. He backed up his words with eight periods of shutout.
Florida goalie John Vanbiesbrouck was almost equally impressive. I say almost because his shutout total was around one period fewer than Roy’s, and that makes all the difference.
Game 4 in Florida ended in a regulation tie. As is the custom in the NHL, the game went into a full period of sudden-death overtime. Then it went into a second full period of sudden-death overtime. In the wee hours of the morning, the two teams entered their third period of sudden-death overtime still tied at 0.
At 4:31 of the third overtime period, this happened:
Uwer Krupp finally snuck one past John Vanbiesbrouck to win the game, and the series… and the Stanley Cup!
So, like I said, you’ll have to agree Krupp made one of the most important plays in Avalanche history.
Uwe Krupp was a Big Boy
Hockey players weren’t as big in the 1990s as they are now, though they’re getting smaller again.
Uwe Krupp was 6-foot-6 and weighed 235 pounds. That made him the biggest player on the Avalanche team by a good margin. And this was a team that included Chris Simon in the lineup. (He was actually #2 on the team for size at 6-foor-3 and 233 pounds. Craig Wolanin, though taller at 6-foot-4, weighed just 215 pounds.)
Though Krupp wasn’t an enforcer, all that size certainly carried with it physical responsibilities. During his time as an Avalanche player, Krupp got into three fights on behalf of the team.
On January 23, 1998, he fought Dave Roche of the Pittsburgh Penguins:
In the modern era, that would be accounted a knock-down, drag-out fight. Back then, the players just received roughing penalties.
On March 26, 1997, Krupp kept the Detroit rivalry alive by dropping the gloves with Jamie Pushor:
The boys got a couple good right-hooks in each before tying each other up.
Krupp engaged in a playoff scuffle against
of the Vancouver Canucks (yes, they occasionally made the playoffs back in the day) on April 27, 1996:
That was a beat-down. Now do you see why I don’t get wound up by Tom Wilson‘s antics, much less those of our captain’s?
Like I said, Uwe Krupp was no goon. He was actually known as a mobile, puck-moving defenseman. In his time with the Colorado Avalanche, he recorded 13 regular-season goals and 42 assists, plus an additional four goals and 13 assists in the playoffs.
Uwe Krupp was an Avid Dog Sledder
Though teams didn’t have social media accounts back in the 1990s because, you know, they didn’t exist yet, they still did human interest stories. One story that was always told about Uwe Krupp was the fact that he was an avid dog sledder.
During his time with the Colorado Avalanche, his dog sledding hobby was never seen as an issue. But as you remember from above, he eventually made his way to the Detroit Red Wings. After just 22 games in 1998, Krupp started experiencing excruciating back spasms.
Turned out Krupp had a recurrence of a herniated disk, for which he had undergone back surgery in 1997. While convalescing, he participated in a few social dog sledding events in a state park in Michigan.
This enraged the team, who proceeded to suspend him. He missed two full seasons because he was on injured reserve when Detroit suspended him — which was a bit of dirty pool on their part. He was finally allowed back on the team for the 2001-02 team.
He helped the Wings win a Stanley Cup that year. He didn’t help them as much as he helped the Avalanche, but Detroit won that season. Let’s not focus on that, though.
Uwe Krupp is the Most Celebrated German Hockey Player
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Uwe Krupp never fully recuperated from his back injuries. He signed with the Atlanta Thrashers in 2002, but he had to stop playing after just four games. He retired.
Nonetheless, Krupp is accounted one of the, if not the, most celebrated German hockey player. He certainly was in his own time, blazing the trail for his countrymen. Christian Erhoff, Dennis Seidenberg and Marco Sturm followed in his footsteps.
On November 23, 2009, before the Colorado Avalanche hosted the Philadelphia Flyers, he was named a member of the Avalanche Alumni Association because of his Cup win with the team.
Not only did Uwe Krupp win two Stanley Cups, he also represented at the All Star Game twice. According to the Hockey Hall of Fame website, his Cup-winning goal “created more excitement in German hockey circles than any event since the West German national team won a bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck.”
Krupp represented his country five times, including in the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. Right after his retirement, he was inducted into the German Hockey Hall of Fame.
On January 17, 2017, Krupp was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame. The selection committee said of his induction:
“It’s difficult enough making an impact at the top levels of hockey, but it is doubly so for players outside the “Big Six,” because their chances of crafting an impressive resume through medals is greatly diminished. Yet it is easy to name Uwe Krupp as the finest hockey player Germany has ever produced.”
That is some high praise.
Next: Remembering the Great Roy-Osgood Fight
Uwe Krupp wore the #4 in his time with the Colorado Avalanche. Avs fans will normally associate Rob Blake first with that number, and then probably Tyson Barrie.
But I remember that Cup-winning goal. That was far from a forgotten fact in my book because you don’t forget spending all those long hours and McNichols Arena in uncomfortable seats as period after period of shutout hockey plays out in front of you.
You never forget your first, in this case Colorado sports championship and Stanley Cup win. The 1996 Stanley Cup win has always been my favorite. And it was a big, German defenseman wearing #4 who secured that victory for the Colorado Avalanche.