Nuggets And Avalanche Both Eliminated Last Weekend At Home

It feels like a hangover kind of Monday as both the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets were eliminated from their respective playoffs within 48 hours. Like a bad dream...

Colorado Avalanche Eliminated From Playoffs

After so much hope when both the NBA and NHL Playoffs began, Colorado sports fans were left in pure misery as both the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche suffered the same fate in round two of their playoff series.

The Colorado Avalanche had somewhat of a roller coaster season and we're up and down quite a bit, but when the going got tough, this Avalanche team answered the call. After winning round one against the top seed in the Western Conference 4 games to 1, people felt awesome about our Avs moving forward.

Round two started with an Avs win, then the wheels started coming loose after losing back-to-back games at home at Ball Arena. The final dagger seemed to come when star player Valeri Nichushkin was suspended just hours before game 4 in Denver for failing a drug test.

The news, whether they'll ever fully admit to it or not, greatly affected the team's morale and it was apparent in the home loss that night. Yes, they did bounce back in Dallas in game 5, only to come back for game 6 and lose a third consecutive home game in double overtime. That los sadly needed the Avs 2024 season.

Was Val the reason, for the second season in a row that the Avs missed grabbing another Stanley Cup? Or maybe the team is just desperately missing their captain, Gabriel Landeskog. I guess we'll never know... While Gabe is hopeful to return next season, I'd be surprised if we ever saw Val in an Avalanche sweater ever again after letting drugs take him out of the playoff picture two years in a row. Really too bad.

Denver Nuggets Eliminated From 2024 Playoffs After Losing Game 7

After one of the team's best seasons ever, the Denver Nuggets headed into the NBA Playoffs with the number two seed, which gave us the home-court advantage over any team except OKC who was the one seed. Home court helped in round 1 against LA who we beat 4 games to 1 to advance to round two...

However, of the 4 home games we played at home in round 2, we lost 3 of them, including game 7 which ended our season. What was the point of even having home court if we couldn't win there? This is not on the fans... I was at game 1 on my birthday and Ball Arena was LIT! Just insane amounts of energy in the stands... Didn't seem to resonate down to the court though.

Yes, as Coach Malone mentioned in last night's post-game press conference, the Nuggets had a very short off-season after winning it all last June, and when you're the champs, everyone is gunning for you. They didn't get much time to rest players at the end of this season like they did last season, and the guys were gassed. Just exhausted. They're human, it happens.

Would having players like Bruce Brown and Jeff Green on the bench have helped is this series, most would say yes. We'll see how the bench is addressed this off-season, but the Nuggets are determined to come back even bigger and stronger next season, I can guarantee you that. Avs too.

While not the outcome we wanted, both teams gave us so many moments to be proud of this season, and for that, as fans say thank you. While it's odd not being able to plan a parade this year after winning a Stanley Cup with the Avs, an NLL Cup with the Colorado Mammoth, and the NBA Championship all in the last two years, we should be thankful for the fact that we've been in the playoffs consistently the last 5-6 years after missing them over and over before that. Plus, we've won 4 major sports championships in the last decade, while some states haven't ever won one.

We're spoiled, and we're mad/sad that our teams didn't live up to their full potential this season, but we're still thankful. At least we should be. Go Avs, Go Nuggets, Go Mammoth, and now, Go Rockies.