How does this Avalanche team compare to their previous two Cup winners?

Hope everybody is holding up ok out there.

I don’t normally go for these kinds of articles, but with so much fresh time on my hands – but more because some of you have requested this kind of article when I put out a call for content the other day – I thought I’d try to compare this Avalanche team with the two that won Stanley Cups, in 1996 and 2001.

Let me first say that any team that hasn’t won a Cup yet doesn’t fully compare to any that did. But I know I’m not alone in thinking this team had a pretty decent shot at winning one this year. Obviously, we all hope it still gets that chance. Personally, I don’t think the odds are good we’ll have any resumption of a 2019-20 season, but I’ve certainly been wrong before and hope I am here as well.

OK, first off, the 1996 and 2001 teams were great teams – better than this one right now. For two big reasons mainly: