from Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post,

Inside the Avalanche dressing room, nameplates of the team’s all-time greats — from Patrick Roy to Peter Forsberg – have been affixed to the wall above locker stalls, as a reminder of a proud championship tradition.

And you know what? Right here, right now is the Avalanche’s best chance to hoist the Stanley Cup since Joe Sakic handed it to Ray Bourque way back in 2001.

“It’s nice to have some pressure. We’re not just the ‘bad Avs’ or whatever anymore. We’re a contender,” superstar Nathan MacKinnon said Thursday, as his teammates reported to training camp with expectations for this season through the Pepsi Center roof. “I think we all want pressure. It’s no fun coming in as an underdog. It got kind of old.”...

So what’s essential to note from this edition of the Avs? Well, Philipp Grubauer must show he can not only get hot when it matters most, but stand tall in goal every night. It’s a lot to ask a 20-year-old defenseman to ascend straight to superstardom, but let’s see how quickly Cale Makar can make the climb. Although Sakic did not break the bank in free agency, he wagers there was sufficient investment in secondary scoring to take some pressure off his big guns.

But maybe the best measure of this franchise’s championship worthiness will be the maturity essential to treating the regular season as serious practice for a long playoff run. That task is harder than it sounds. Why? Anyone can focus on results reinforced by the scoreboard, but the nuts-and-bolts process of building a champion is meticulous and sometimes tedious detail work.

more