Frei: Joe Sakic knows all about pressure – on the ice and in the Avalanche front office (+)

This is starting to look — and sound — familiar.

In 2001, the Avalanche were coming off consecutive and very wrenching Game 7 losses to Dallas – both at Reunion Arena (“Eddie’s Better!”) in the Western Conference Finals.

With a star-studded roster and the ongoing drama that was Ray Bourque’s quest to hoist the Stanley Cup before his retirement, the pressure mounted.

Given that the 2021-22 Avalanche’s gaudy record has kicked the already high expectations up a notch, the pressures are getting into that territory of 21 years ago. Plus, the Avalanche also can’t escape the label. It’s as if “…who have lost in the second round three years in a row” is part of team nickname.

I asked Joe Sakic — the captain of the 2001 Cup champions and vice-president and general manager of the current team — about that at his pre-game news conference Thursday night at Ball Arena.

Is that kind of pressure energizing or a potential distraction?

“I don’t think it’s a distraction,” he said. “Our guys are looking forward to getting back and trying to compete for the Stanley Cup. It was disappointing, as it was for those two years for our group (in 1999 and 2000), but you have to compete for 82 games to put yourself in position to have a chance again, and that’s what our guys have done. Once you get there, a lot has to happen, you have to be healthy, you have to be on the top of your game, your goaltending has to be great. But I know our guys are looking forward to that challenge.”

Sakic touched on a variety of topics, including his team’s impressive play so far this season; Bo Byram’s continuing absence; Nazem Kadri’s terrific showing in a contract year; and Sakic’s desire to talk about a contract extension with Nathan MacKinnon as soon as that’s possible.

The session was Sakic’s first significant meeting with Colorado media since he discussed Jared Bednar’s contract extension between periods of a November 19 Avalanche win at Seattle. It also came before the Avalanche beat the Lightning 3-2 in the Thursday night matchup that was being billed as a possible Stanley Cup Final preview.

Colorado came out of the All-Star break at 32-8-4.

“It’s been pretty good, pretty consistent,” Sakic said. “We had a tough start, but we found our team chemistry, the guys believe in each other. What were we, 15-0-1 in January? What I like about this team is we’re finding different ways to win hockey games. . . Some nights, especially in January, we played really well as a team and won games. Other nights, we didn’t play that well but we found a way and our goaltending made a difference. Everybody’s contributing. Especially in January, we’ve come back in games, where other years we might not have. They never believe they’re out. There’s no quit in this team.”

I asked him if he felt the evidence was showing that this team has been toughened and has added grit since last year’s playoff flameout against Vegas.

“That’s one thing with this group,” Sakic said. “They stick up for one another. They don’t back down. We’ve played some physical games. We’ve come right and been just as physical as anyone else. Whether this year is a flowing game or a tight-checking game, our guys have responded.”

After the second-round loss to Vegas, Sakic was — at least for him — sharply critical of his team’s lack of fight and of sticking up for one another. With a 2-0 series lead, the Avalanche began to act like the trailing team. They stopped calling the shots, so to speak — mentally and physically.

In the offseason, Sakic added an enforcer, Kurtis MacDermid, who was mercilessly mocked by analytics devotees. But as we’ve been reminded since, guys like him can enhance a team’s camaraderie if they’re perceived to be standing up for their teammates rather than being carnival acts. You can believe the NHL would be better off minus fighting, as I do, yet still realistically acknowledge its role as long as it’s tacitly allowed. Surprisingly, MacDermid is a more serviceable player than many (including me) thought — if used in the right situations on defense and even, for the first time in his NHL career, at wing.

Jack Johnson and Erik Johnson (who played only four games last season because of concussion issues) have added size, skill and snarl in veteran, leadership roles on the back end. This season has provided additional evidence that the October 2020 trade for Devon Toews, available in part because the Islanders had cap issues, was a steal for two draft choices.

Yet, Sakic still faces some tough questions with this team.

Byram continues to be away from the team on personal leave because of concussion problems. He last played January 10 at home against Seattle. The young defenseman still is on the active roster and hasn’t been placed on long-term injured reserve for cap purposes.

“We’re giving him his space,” Sakic said. “He needs some time. He’s a great young hockey player who’s going to have a long career, so I think right now he wants to make sure that when he comes back, there’s no lingering issues. It’ll be on his timetable. Whenever he feels he’s ready, he’ll let us know. We look forward to having him back.”

Sakic said LTIR would be an option if a return this season is ruled out.

“But right now, we’re hoping he’ll be back,” Sakic said.

Sakic made the deal with Arizona to bring in Darcy Kuemper as Philipp Grubauer’s successor in the Colorado net. His early season play wasn’t alarming as much as it was, well, meh.

“He’s gotten better as he’s gotten more comfortable with the guys in front of him,” Sakic said of Kuemper. “I think there’s a learning curve when a goalie comes from a different organization to a new team, sort of sorting things out. I know he had an injury there, but in early December since he’s come back from that, he’s been really good, really consistent for us.”

I asked Sakic about what he could address as the March 21 trading deadline approaches.

“If we can improve the team, with the cap situation, we’re probably looking at a hockey trade,” Sakic said. (He meant player for player transactions that would move salary both ways.) “But we’ll also look to add if we can. We don’t have a lot of capital to give up, but we’re going to see what we can do to help. Right now what we might think we need might be different in five weeks. We’re just hoping our guys can stay healthy and maybe try and accumulate cap space. . . If there’s a trade that helps us get to the next level, that improves us, then we’ll look at it.”

The “next level,” of course, is the Stanley Cup overhead.

It isn’t orange slices.

I asked Sakic if he regretted not getting Kadri signed to an extension in the offseason.

Sakic laughed and said, “You can’t look back, Terry.”

(Yes, I can.)

“We’re looking to try to have a great regular season here and try and put ourselves in the best position to compete for the Stanley Cup,” Sakic said. “That stuff will take care of itself at the end.”

What could he say about the season Kadri is having?

“He’s been unreal for us,” Sakic said. “He’s been a great leader on and off the ice. He’s taken it to another level.”

MacKinnon has one more season remaining on the seven-year, $44.1-million contract that has turned out to be one of the biggest bargains in pro sports, thanks to the inflexibility of the NHL’s hard cap. His camp and the Avs could start talking about an extension after this season.

“We’ve been looking at that for three years now,” Sakic said. “That’s going to happen the first day we’re allowed to speak with him. We’ll have contact with him and see if we can have an extension in place this summer.”

The win over the Lightning Thursday got the Avalanche to a league-best 70 points in 45 games. That’s the fastest Colorado ever has reached 70 points.

It took 48 games for the 2000-01 Avalanche to get to 70.

That doesn’t mean anything.

Yet.

My omnibus December 2020 Q&A with Sakic for Mile High Sports Magazine. We should have been smoking cigars and sipping Scotch.

Terry Frei (terry@terryfrei.com) is a Denver-based author and journalist. He has been named a state’s sportswriter of the year seven times in peer voting — four times in Colorado and three times in Oregon. His seven books include the novels “Olympic Affair” and “The Witch’s Season.” Among his five non-fiction works are “Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming,” “Third Down and a War to Go,” “March 1939: Before the Madness,” and “’77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age.” He also collaborated with Adrian Dater on “Save By Roy,” was a long-time vice president of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and has covered the hockey Rockies, Avalanche and the NHL at-large. His web site is www.terryfrei.com and his bio is available at www.terryfrei.com/bio.html

His Colorado Hockey Now column archive can be accessed here