Note: These moments will be presented in chronological order. Additionally, "memorable" does not, in this case, refer exclusively to positive and successful moments. Lastly, there is, admittedly, some definite recency bias towards the 2022 season.
The 30 Most Memorable Moments from 30 Years in Denver — Part 1
The 30 Most Memorable Moments from 30 Years in Denver — Part 2
21. April 12-15, 2019 — Cale Makar's NHL Debut
Friday, April 12, 2019 — After his breakout sophomore campaign with the University of Massachusetts Amherst Minutemen, defensive sensation Cale Makar is given the Hobey Baker Award, presented annually to the collegiate MVP. He recorded 16 goals, 33 assists, and 49 points in 41 games, which led all players in the Hockey East and was the most for any defenseman in the entirety of the NCAA.
Saturday, April 13, 2019 — U-Mass Amherst loses to Minnesota Duluth in the championship game. While it was a disappointing end to an historic season for the Minutemen, it was still a remarkable run: U-Mass Amherst had never qualified for the Frozen Four since joining Hockey East for the 1993-94 season. They beat Harvard University (4-0), Notre Dame University (4-0), and Denver University (4-3) in the single-elimination tournament bracket before losing 3-0 to Minnesota Duluth.
Sunday, April 14, 2019 — Makar, as a 20-year-old, signs his Entry-Level Contract (ELC). This makes him eligible to join the Avs, and he dressed for them in their next game. Notably, this cut a year off of his ELC, which meant that the Avs would have to pay him more money sooner and would have to protect him from the impending Seattle Kraken expansion draft, but the Avs' front office wanted him to get playoff experience, and they knew he could immediately contribute in the lineup.
Monday, April 15, 2019 — In Game Three against the Calgary Flames in the 2019 Western Conference Quarter-Finals, Makar makes his NHL debut. He hails from Calgary, so many friends and family members are in attendance, and he didn't disappoint them. On his very first shot, with just under four minutes left in the first period, Makar scores his first ever NHL goal, and it wound up being the game winner in a 6-2 Avalanche win. He became the first defenseman to ever score in a playoff debut, and he never looked back.
22. May 8, 2019 — Landeskog Offside
The following series, played against the San Jose Sharks, went to Game Seven. The Avs had already fully exceeded their season's expectations, so every game they played past the regular season felt like a gift when compared against their season projections . And yet, with their strong play and the sudden influx of Makar, the Avs were making noise in the Western Conference playoffs, and they had made it to this win-or-go-home final game. If they had won, they would've been on to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2002. Fate is cruel, however, and, partly resulting from the butterfly effect and fallout of Matt Duchene's offside goal from 2013, the Avs had a goal overturned because of a coach's challenge.
This goal was a pivotal one. It came in the second period, after Nathan MacKinnon passed the puck through the legs of Sharks' defender Justin Braun and onto the stick of Colin Wilson; he then one-timed it just under the crossbar and over the left-handed glove of Sharks' netminder Martin Jones. This drew the score even at 2-2, and the Avs seemingly had all of the momentum in front of a raucous San Jose crowd. However, shortly after the goal was scored, the call was challenged; upon review, it was evident that, despite not impacting the play whatsoever, Avs' captain Gabriel Landeskog's feet were technically offside as he waited to return to the Avs' bench after his shift ended. The challenge was upheld, the goal was overturned, and the Avs lost the game 3-2.
After the game, Landeskog took responsibility for the goal's disallowance, saying, "I'm going to take blame for that because I could have done a lot of things different... Ultimately my skates were on the ice. It's a clumsy mistake, you know. Get off the ice." The moment was clearly a technicality, based entirely against the spirit of the offside rule and the intentions of the coach's challenge, but it stood, and the Avs lost the game. They have not won a Game Seven since the aforementioned 2002 playoffs.
23. February 15, 2020 — Stadium Series at US Air Force Academy
Four years after their inaugural outdoor game, the Avs hosted another Stadium Series matchup, this time against the Los Angeles Kings. It was held at the United States Air Force Academy, and the Avs were decidedly the favorites coming into the game, and fans were expecting a convincing win; it was Kings' forward Tyler Toffoli, however, who ultimately put on a shower for the crowd in Colorado Springs, Colorado. His hat trick — which included two goals in the final minute of the third period — would be enough to win the game, 3-1, for Los Angeles. The Avs recorded just a single goal, off the stick of Samuel Girard. Toffoli's hat trick remains the only one ever scored in an outdoor game.
The event, as a whole, was ridiculed before it even began. First, the teams' jerseys were, to put it gently, rather divisive. Famously, the Avs' jerseys were derided for looking like a bib around the players' necks, and the Kings' jerseys were lamented for being odd and uninspired. Second, the traffic getting into and out of the event was biblically bad. Some fans missed the entirety of the opening frame as they remained trapped in their cars. Third, the concessions and amenities in the stadium were lacking, with stalls running out of food, bathroom wait times exceeding 30 minutes, and parking lots remaining snow-covered. Add all that to an Avs' collapse — their second that week (they blew a lead against the Washington Capitals three days earlier) — against one of the worst teams in the league, and it was another disappointing game played in the open air of Colorado.
24. August 2, 2020 — Nazem Kadri’s Bubble Buzzer-Beater
The NHL "bubble," which saw the return of NHL hockey amidst the concerns and dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic, is an era of hockey many fans have been happy to move on from and leave in the past. Despite this, the experience did leave a handful of memories that will live on in hockey history, and one such moment was Nazem Kadri's "buzzer-beater" goal from the first game of round robin play. The elation on Kadri's face is enough to set this moment aside forever in the minds of Avs' faithful, and it helped cement Kadri as one of the most endearing players to don the burgundy and blue in recent memory.
Tied 1-1 as time ticked down in the third period, the Avs were on a powerplay, courtesy of a hooking call on one of St. Louis' best penalty killers, Alexander Steen, who could only sit and watch the chaos. Landeskog received a slap pass from MacKinnon, and he rifled the puck on net and into the mass of Jordan Binnington, tending goal for the St. Louis Blues. Unable to corral it, however, the puck bounced off of his left shoulder and landed in front of Kadri, who swiftly shot the puck into the back of the net. St. Louis quickly protested the goal, insisting that it was scored after the period-ending buzzer had sounded, but the review showed that the puck did, in fact, cross the goal line with 0.01 seconds remaining, thus establishing it as a good goal. Kadri's tally is tied with Carolina's Jussi Jokinen for the latest go-ahead goal in NHL playoff history.
25. February 20, 2021 — NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe
For the second consecutive February, the Avs played a game outdoors. The differences between them, however, were vast. While the aforementioned game at the Air Force Academy was planned well in advance and played in front of more than 45,000 fans, this game, played alongside Lake Tahoe in Nevada (without a crowd because of Covid-19 restrictions), was implemented in place of the 2021 Stadium Series and Winter Classic games, all of which were postponed because of the pandemic. In addition, the two games played as part of this series (the other featuring the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers), were standalone games, as the league has no plans to play such games ever again. Thusly, the "NHL Outdoors" series was a singular moment in NHL history, uniquely designed to accommodate health and safety concerns.
A month before the game even started, a moment between Avs forwards Pierre-Édouard Bellemare and André Burakovsky went viral, as, during a press conference, "Burky" had to inform Bellemare that the game was to be played next to Lake Tahoe, not on Lake Tahoe. Bellemare was visibly dejected by this revelation. When game day arrived, the Avs — wearing their Quebec Nordiques-inspired jerseys — faced off against the Vegas Golden Knights, who donned their first-ever secondary jersey. The game was full of memorable moments, including a delay of more than eight hours due to visibility conc erns, and, most notably, Nathan MacKinnon flipping the one-man goal-scoring machine switch as he crashed the net and blew by future hall-of-famer Alex Pietrangelo and snuck the puck behind future hall-of-famer Marc-André Fleury.
26. May 27, 2022 — Darren Helm Sends the Avs to Round 3
Darren Helm won his first Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 2008: his first year in the NHL. For 14 seasons, he played for the Wings, appearing in another Stanley Cup Final in his second season, in which the Wings lost in a rematch against the Pittsburgh Penguins. After that season, the Wings dynasty was officially over; Helm continued to play as the Wings gradually fell from contender to also-rans, and their current streak of nine-straight seasons without a playoff berth began while he was still playing in Hockeytown. The Wings — who were looking to focus on drafting, developing, and giving their young players a bigger role in the lineup — did not re-sign him for the 2021-22 season, so Colorado signed Helm a one-year $1mil contract. He was eager to illustrate he still had more to give, and he wanted another crack at winning Lord Stanley's Cup.
He is forever enmeshed in the legacy of Colorado Avalanche hockey, not just because he did win a Stanley Cup with the club, but because of the goal he scored in the waning moments of Game Six of the Western Conference Semi-Finals against the St. Louis Blues. It was a rather routine shot from the left boards, just above the circle, but it got through Binnington with five seconds remaining, putting the nail in the coffin of the 2021-22 Blues' season. The Avs, who, as mentioned earlier had not advanced past the second round since 2002 (including three-straight seasons leading up to this one in which they failed to escape round two), had finally broken through to the Western Conference Finals, and, ultimately, on to the Stanley Cup Finals, which they won in six games. Helm was 10th in the lineup of the Stanley Cup handoff order, both due to his veteran status and his role in getting them there at all.
He earned himself a raise after raising the Cup; Helm signed a second-consecutive one-year deal with the Avs, this time for $1.25mil, to remain in Colorado for the 2022-23 season, but injuries kept him out of the lineup for much of the season, and he retired in the ensuing offseason. He is beloved by Avs fans, despite his time with the still-disliked Red Wings; he, most recently, played in the Avs Alumni v. Denver University Pioneers Alumni Game on August 24, 2025.
27. June 22, 2022 — Nazem Kadri Scores Game-Winner in Return from Injury
On June 4th, Kadri suffered a broken thumb in Game Three of the Western Conference Finals against the Edmonton Oilers; his prognosis wasn't great, and there was a legitimate chance that he'd be on the shelf and in the press box for the remainder of the playoffs. He underwent surgery for the injury two days later, on June 6th, and the recovery time was estimated to be roughly six weeks, which would have seen him miss the Stanley Cup Finals, should the Avs get that far, altogether.
There was a narrative surrounding Kadri, one which he was well aware of: he had been a labeled a "playoff liability" in years past, for both his original team, the Toronto Maple Leafs (with whom he had been suspended in the playoffs two times, and for the Colorado Avalanche the season prior (with whom he was given an eight-game suspension for a check to the head of Blues' defenseman Justin Faulk). In 2022, things escalated inexcusably when he collided with Jordan Binnington in Game Three of the Avs’ second-round matchup with St. Louis and was the victim of death threats and racist comments in the ensuing 48 hours and had a water bottle hurled at him by Binnington during an interview with TNT. He had a statement game in Game Four, in which he recorded a hat trick and spoke out against the doubters of his ability to perform in a level-headed manner in clutch moments. Then the injury occurred in the next round, and it seemed Kadri’s influence on whether or not the Avs would claim their third Stanley Cup would be nullified.
Because the Avs' front office had given him a chance, and because he was determined to not let his hard-nosed playstyle dictate his legacy as a dirty playoff player, he made it his mission to return to the Avs and to make an immediate, positive difference and to be a reliable contributor for the team. He returned from injury in Game Four of the Stanley Cup Finals, and he scored the overtime game-winning goal on a rush chance against Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, potting a goal just under the back bar behind goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. There was much discourse regarding the goal as the night progressed; there was outcry that the Avs had too many men on the ice at the time of the Kadri goal, as he was the sixth player on the ice as the play developed for the Avs. In the spirit of fairness (pedantry), Tampa Bay had seven players on the ice at the time of the goal. The goal was not disallowed, and the Avs, accordingly, took a 3-1 stranglehold on the Finals.
Kadri, who had no qualms embracing the role of villain (especially since he had overcome his prior suspension history and had been such an impact player for the Avs), wore a custom-made “Too Many Men” shirt during the Avs’ Stanley Cup parade.
28. June 26, 2022 — Avs Win Third Stanley Cup
In Game Six of the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals, the Avs beat the two-time defending Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning, by a score of 2-1 on Tampa's home ice. Lightning captain Steven Stamkos scored the game’s first goal early into the first period, but it would also be the last goal scored by the Bolts in the 2021-22 season. Artturi Lehkonen, who had scored the overtime goal that swept the Oilers out of the playoffs and sent the Avs to the finals (and who had sent Montreal to the finals in similar fashion the season prior), was once again center stage when clutch time arrived. He redirected a puck off the post in the last five minutes of the first, and he was buzzing all over the place throughout the whole game. After MacKinnon tied the game early in the second period, “Lucky Lehky” scored the eventual game-winning goal just past the halfway point of the game.
It was a night filled with joy, redemption, doubt-silencing, first-time Cup wins for veteran players (Andrew Cogliano and the Johnsons — both Erik and Jack), and an infamous denting of Lord Stanley's Cup. Depth piece and energy bug Nicolas Aube-Kubel, who had been claimed off of waivers from the Philadelphia Flyers when the Avs were dealing with some early-season injuries, skated the Cup over for the team photo, slipped (watch out for ice!), and landed alongside the Cup in full view of his teammates, whose reactions likened the moment to a renaissance painting (pictured above). The Avs are the only team to have won the Stanley Cup every time they’ve made a Stanley Cup Finals appearance (1996, 2001, 2022).
29. June 26, 2022 — Peter McNab and Gabriel Landeskog
From the very beginning of NHL hockey's return to the Mile High City, Peter McNab — who spent three years in the early ‘70s with the University of Denver — was a part of Colorado Avalanche hockey. He witnessed the birth of one of the best NHL clubs at the turn of the 21st century, remained a constant, ever-smiling presence as the team's success waned, and continued to provide brilliant color commentary, game after game, even as his body was ravaged by liver cancer. He had battled it and sent it into remission, but it returned during the Avs’ playoff run in 2022.
After the Avs claimed their third Stanley Cup championship in 2022, and as the celebration of this victory began to spill out from the arena and into the warm Tampa night, a noticeably-gaunt McNab — who had missed parts of the 2021-22 season while receiving chemotherapy and recovering from the physically-taxing ordeal — was still there on the ice, microphone in hand, soaking up the sweet vibes of victory. He was noticed by longtime Avs captain, Gabriel Landeskog, who skated up to McNab; the two embraced and began talking about the journey Landeskog had been on to win the Stanley Cup, with McNab's own journey, right alongside the team and the fans, so obvious and poignant.
Ultimately, McNab passed away on November 6, 2022. He was 70 years old, and he was one of the great personalities in all of hockey. "Maxy" is dearly missed, and his absence is still felt by Avs fans and across the NHL.
30. April 23, 2025 — Landeskog Returns
The final entry on this three-part series is a recent one, but the context of it spans back to the 2020 season. On September 2, 2020 during Game Six of the Avs' series , as a complete freak accident, Cale Makar's skate blade sliced into the back of Landeskog's right leg, in a spot where it is unprotected by the shin guard. The main damage done was to his patella, and it worsened over time.
The injury didn't seem all that serious at first. Everything, for the most part, seemed well within normal injury parameters; Landeskog did miss the decisive Game Seven, but when the Avs lost and were eliminated, he was given the offseason to recover. He played throughout the next two seasons, missing time periodically, battling through discomfort and increasing pain. He ultimately also missed the last 23 games to end the 2021-22 season, but he returned and captioned the Avs to Lord Stanley's Cup in the 2022 NHL Playoffs.
After that, in October 2022, he received arthroscopic knee surgery; he was expected to need 12 weeks to recover, which set him on track to play in the latter half of the 2022-23 season. Things did not go according to plan. The injury was much worse than previously thought. The Avs front office announced that Landeskog wouldn't return for the 2023 playoffs, and, soon thereafter, it was announced he'd also miss the entire 2023-24 season and would undergo experimental cartilage transplant surgery. This surgery had never been performed on an NHLer who managed to return from the injury to resume playing at the NHL level. In total, Landeskog had four surgeries for this single injury.
Questions were often asked about any possible return timeline, whether or not he would retire, how a possible comeback from LTIR would impact the team, etc.; he was also featured as part of the first season of Amazon's "Faceoff: Inside the NHL," which looked at his road to recovery. By early 2025, videos of Landeskog practicing with the team and looking better and better led to much speculation that a return was imminent. On April 9, It was announced that he had been loaned to the Colorado Eagles for a conditioning stint, during which he played two full games of competetive, professional hockey. It was evident he'd be attempting a return; on April 23, after 1,032 days, he finally did return. In his first shift in three years, he checked former teammate Mikko Rantanen, sending Rantanen to the ice and causing an eruption of cheers from the already-amped home crowd at Ball Arena.
Honorable Mention: May 31, 2022 — Makar Offside
To see another example of the ripple effect of the Duchene offside non-call, one doesn't even have to look outside of Colorado. Cale Makar became the latest Avs superstar to have a play put under a microscope; granted, this one deserved it. At first glance, it appears that Valeri Nichuskin was offside when Makar entered the zone on a play that resulted in a goal for Colorado. However, if one looks at it clearly — and with the context of rule 83.3 of the NHL rulebook — it is evident that Makar relinquished control of the puck as both he and the it went over the blueline, and Nichuskin tagged up before Makar touched the puck again.
While the call was ultimately upheld — and the decision was supported near-universally (apart from fans of the Edmonton Oilers) — the discourse around it was rife with debate as keyboard warriors clashed with armchair GMs over the application of the aforementioned rule, especially in such a pivotal moment in an NHL playoff game that was, before the goal, tied 2-2 in the fleeting seconds of period two. However, despite the controversy, there was plenty of precedent for a moment like this, with three specific instances cited as supporting evidence. To help fans and media members better understand the rule's interpretation, the league posted this official statement on Twitter:
"It was determined that Colorado's Valeri Nichushkin legally tagged up at the blue line before Cale Makar entered the offensive zone with the puck on his stick. Makar made contact with the puck in the offensive zone after Nichuskin was in an on-side position."Official statement by the NHL
To support this, former NHL official Dave Jackson broke down the moment rather effectively in the following video:
Here is an explanatory video on the Makar offside challenge last night. I’ve slowed the play down but the rule application is the same, regardless of speed. Player’s intent does not matter, it could have happened by accident. pic.twitter.com/VXHGLg2d6g
— Dave Jackson (@ESPNRefNHL) June 1, 2022
Thankfully, this play, unlike the Landeskog play mentioned earlier, went in favor of the Avs, who wound up winning this game 8-6. The Avs swept this series rather convincingly on their way to the 2022 Stanley Cup.
Honorable Mention: June 27, 2024 — Nathan MacKinnon wins Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award
Going into the 2023-24 season, Nathan MacKinnon had yet to win the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's MVP. His closest encounter with it came during the 2017-18 season, in which Taylor Hall, then of the New Jersey Devils, ultimately took home the hardware, and MacK finished in second place after all the votes were tallied. It's worth mentioning how close the two were in terms of votes: Hall finished with 1,264, and MacKinnon finished with 1,194, just 70 behind Hall. For context, the third-place vote-getter, Anže Kopitar, finished with a distant 551.
Perhaps more surprising than the fact that MacKinnon had not won an MVP in his first 10 seasons is the fact that he did win a Lady Byng after the 2019-20 season, despite this decision being a bit of a head-scratcher. He isn't a dirty player by any means, but he's also not known for his gentlemanly behavior on the ice (just ask Alex Garland).
His performance in the 2023-24 season — 51 goals, 89 assists, and 140 points in 82 games — set him down the path to winning the MVP; it was MacK's award to lose, despite Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov making a case, himself. Alongside the award, MacKinnon also took home the Ted Lindsay Award, which is given to the MVP as voted on by his peers throughout the league. Both of these signify how dominant he was, start-to-finish, that season.
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