Ice, ice, baby...

Watching the Colorado Avalanche hoist the toughest trophy to conquer in all of sports for their third such victory in franchise history, it offered chance for this one time sports editor and radio guy to reflect on the hard earned respect the NHL has won from me over the years.

For clarification, I've always loved hockey.

From the moment I pretended to have ice skates on a frozen pond, sliding around and hitting a tennis ball with a neighbor's hockey stick, it was frozen joy any winter I got to 'play' with anyone who was brave enough to get out on the ice with other kids armed with sticks.

I was only 14 when I saw the tape delayed epic Miracle on Ice when the USA vanquished the Red Army on skates for Olympic glory in February of 1980. I was grateful to witness one of those sports David and Goliath moment that stick with you forever.

Those happy moments aside, my relationship with the NHL was, to put it in modern social media vernacular, complicated.

Living in Denver at the time, the Colorado Rockies hockey team had been around six seasons from 1976-1982 before the team owner ran out of money and New Jersey got a hold of them, changed the name and ignored the idea the original Rox ever existed. While never in contention for Lord Stanley's Cup, they were feisty, fun to watch and I at least got Wilf Paiement's autograph out of the deal.

The first hockey team hat I wore bore the emblem of an original six squad, the Broadstreet Bullies as they were known for at the time, or the Philadelphia Flyers. That hat was a gift from my Irish Uncle Joe, and he was as guy who spent his life as a butcher in the oft misnamed city of Brotherly Love. He was as tough as the sport he loved, and he made the best case he could to sell me on a life of Flyer fandom.

The Flyers just didn't quite take for me.

The thing was, NHL hockey wasn't on much after the Rockies left Denver, and what I did see, didn't look much like the game itself -- I watched every Olympic hockey game, starting with 1976 games -- and the NHL started to look more like boxing on skates.

Little did I know Wayne Gretzky was on his way to transforming the game to a much higher level. Hoops got Michael Jordan, and hockey got the Great One. I am fortunate enough to have witnessed both of them make their sports better.

Enter the Colorado Avalanche by the way of Quebec in 1995.

The beloved Nordiques were out of options for a newer facility, and the team was sold to Comcast. An owner out of resources was the same reason Colorado's original Rockies were lost to the Devils. It wasn't as horrible as the NFL Baltimore Colts being moved out at midnight in the cover of darkness for richer pastures in Indiana, but it is never easy for a fanbase to lose a team.

That aside, the Nordiques would be beloved again in very short order with their arrival in Denver.

Much to the chagrin of many hockey fans, the Nordiques did the draft work, and the big trades (hey, Flyers, remember Peter Forsberg?) and the newly arrived Avalanche would reap all of the glory in the first season at a Mile High.

The 1995-1996 run at Lord Stanley needed one last ingredient, and it turned out to be a championship decision obtaining Patrick Roy from the Montreal Canadiens. 

I witnessed almost every game of that amazing first season from afar, living and working out of state. It became a team I had to watch. Skills and toughness, just ask their arch-rival Detroit Red Wings. A rivalry still being talked about in books and ESPN documentaries years after the fact.

Watching the Avs lift that first trophy was surreal.

Remember, those first not so glorious Colorado Rockies were never competitive — much less a team that could win it all. These Avalanche weren't good, they were great. They won 8 straight division titles from 1995-2003, two President's Trophies and two Stanley Cups.

As a professional hockey observer, I was quite spoiled with quality teams.

I got to be around quite a bit for the second cup, and attended games in the regular season and much of the playoffs. Although, I did not have quite enough resources at the time to get to a home game in the finals against the one time Colorado Rockies, now known by some as the New Jersey Devils. Or as sportscasting legend Ron Zappolo used to say, “your” New Jersey Devils.

Game seven became a glorious family memory with the wife and two sons camped in front of the television watching the home team finally dispatch the talented, yet boring, zone trappers from east. What's more fun than a family group hug when the good guys win? When the good guys beat the team that includes no mention of the Rockies in their history or media guides.

At least the Avs embrace their Nordique roots.

But the mighty do fall and the Avalanche certainly returned to earth.

It would take more than a decade to grab another division title, and the ghosts of Rockies' hockey past began to haunt the Can in Denver. 

I joined those fans who stayed loyal but wondered if the squad would find glory again. I was great at second guessing draft picks and coaching in that era. Although, looks like this Jared Bednar guy may work out as coach after all.

Someone got the idea to promote hockey hall of fame Avalanche legend Joe Sakic to Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations in 2013. 

Super Joe took some time to get a handle on the process, budgets and corporate politics, but he assembled a new era via trades and the draft and we all saw the results the other night. Adding goalie Darcy Kuemper turned out to be just good enough to get the job done, to go with new Colorado legends like Nate MacKinnon, Gabe Landeskog and three year superstar (already) Cale Makar.

Lord Stanley's Cup is returning home.

A win over the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning wasn't easy, but again, the toughest trophy in sports lives up to its name.

Nothing complicated about the love of professional hockey anymore. 

It ain't always pretty, yet getting through the ugly, slow moments make the sport extraordinary at full speed. Fast, furious, relentless attacking hockey is a sight to see for fans old or new, and I love the open ice approach of 'western' hockey, perfected by Gretzky's Edmonton teams and fun now and again with teams like the one Sakic showed off over the last few years.

The question I have left for the team is, did they flop a bit at the end to avoid their second straight President's Trophy? With only 11 of 33 President's Trophy winners grabbing the Cup, some players see it as a jinx, like last year with yet another second round exit. Although, the 2001 team did manage to break that jinx, maybe this year's team was taking no chances.

I'm starting to think that baseball may have more superstitions, but hockey's superstitions are stronger.