Colorado Avalanche: Day Two of Avs in Sweden

My second day in Sweden with the Colorado Avalanche featured boats, ABBA and more hockey.

Day two of the Swedish adventure gave us a bit more time for sightseeing before the next Colorado Avalanche game. We took a boat across the river and made a stop at the ABBA museum. After watching EJ admit he thought ABBA was an American rock artist in the KeyBank challenge videos, we knew we had to have some ABBA on our trip. I, representing Team Barrie, had to make sure Crystal, representing Team Johnson, got a proper education.

After that we visited the Vasa Museum which is still one of the most incredible places I’ve ever visited, and I travel a lot. It’s a maritime museum that houses the only almost intact 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged. The ship sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 so imagine the Titanic, only made of wood, and still in one piece. It’s an absolutely astonishing view to see it stretch along the entire length of the museum as soon as you walk through the door. 

We spent most of the morning exploring the museum and from there we took a scenic walk back to the hotel. Then it was time to get ready for the next Avs game. Obviously we had to show off our shirts at the arena and we ended up on the jumbotron, which was fun.

I’m always looking to recruit new Avs fans and this was Wendy’s first game after months of spamming her with pics and videos. I was very proud of myself. Not only was this her first Avs game, it was her first NHL game too. 

This time we left the signs behind and headed down to the glass to take some photos and videos of warmups. I was lucky that I managed to get some shots and footage of my favorites.

I was particularly happy with the photo of Nail Yakupov that I took, and he retweeted it when I posted it which made my day.

The strangest thing about going down to take photos was that I got a really good look at Matt Duchene wearing an Ottawa Senators jersey. The first day I was so caught up in the excitement of being there to see my team and the fun we had with the media people before the game. It didn’t really hit me that Dutchy wasn’t on our team anymore until I saw him hit the ice on that second day. It was strange, and kind of sad, especially when he took a faceoff against Nate later in the game.

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

The game itself was really interesting to watch. The team played strongly for the most part and things only really fell apart in the third period. Alexander Kerfoot ended the game with a goal and an assist, bringing his total number of points to 4 over the two Sweden games. 

Having just acquired Sam Girard as part of the Duchene trade it everyone had their eyes on him and he demonstrated that he was an asset worth having. He got an assist during his first game in Sweden and somehow we knew we would be seeing a lot more of him in future games.

Even though they lost both their games in Sweden it wasn’t by much and it was clear that they were starting to gel as a team. It was no surprise to me that they hit a 12 game winning streak just a few weeks after this.

This was a turning point for the Avalanche and I was lucky to be there to see it. As I mentioned in my previous post the final score didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. I still had an incredible time and have stories that I can tell for years to come.

After the game our group of Avs family met again and, although there were no surprise visits by NHL players, we had an amazing time. It gave us a chance to enjoy nice food, have some cocktails and chat and get to know each other a little more.

I ended my time in Sweden tired, but happy, and with new friends that I will cherish forever.

Next stop for me in my Avalanche hockey adventures is Denver in March 2019. If it’s even a fraction as fun as this trip was I know I’ll have the best time.