from Sean Keller of the Denver Post,

Roster’s too soft, man. Too fragile. Too pretty. The stuff that’s been chucked at Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic over the last 24 months, Ken Holland heard 16-17 years ago. In his sleep.

“There was talk, (with) the Red Wings at that time, that (we) were too European, were too small,” Holland, general manager of the Oilers and architect of those early-oughts Detroit rosters that the Front Range loved to hate, said on the eve of Tuesday’s Colorado-Edmonton Game 1. “(But) we believed in the team.”

Holland built squads that won the Stanley Cup in 1998 and 2002, then again in 2008....

Sakic stuck with Nazem Kadri, whose past playoff shenanigans made him a marked man by other teams, by other teams’ fans, and by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety.

Sakic stuck with Jared Bednar, even as the coach drove those talented rosters Super Joe had constructed the way a toddler drives while playing Mario Kart for the first time.

Even after the Avs somehow managed to land in playoff ditch after playoff ditch. Even as the whispers that Bednar was in over his head got louder with each passing, painful spring.

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