from Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post,
When the story of this NHL championship is told, the first and last words will be the same: Nazem Kadri. After the Avalanche hoist the Stanley Cup, the most rousing toast should honor a player who overcame his own demons to deliver hockey’s holy grail to Colorado.
“Oh, man. rollercoaster of emotions, thinking I was done and then having a sliver of hope … Sitting here right now is surreal,” Kadri said late Wednesday after coming off the injured list to drive a stake through the heart of Tampa Bay with a broken thumb....
“When you need him, he delivers,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said.
When it was over, Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper took issue with Kadri’s goal, insisting “We should probably still be playing” before bolting out of his news conference in frustration barely 90 seconds after he sat down behind the microphone.
“I’m not quite sure what he’s thinking, why it shouldn’t have counted,” said Kadri, dismissing any suggestion by Cooper the Avs could’ve been guilty of too many men on the ice when the game-winner was scored. “I put the puck in the back of the net. End of story.”
Sour grapes sound bitter from the two-time defending champs.
While far be it from me to encourage a conspiracy theory but the dude in charge of the ice at Amalie Arena let the playing surface deteriorate into roughly the same consistency as a blue raspberry Slurpee at your neighborhood 7-Eleven store, trying to negate the Avalanche’s obvious advantage in team speed.
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