A sneakily good score by front-office honcho Joe Sakic way back at the NHL trade deadline was lost in the beautiful din of a groovy 3-2 Avalanche playoff win.
Florida Panthers captain and All-Star Game MVP Claude Giroux were acquired amid much fanfare, while Sakic made an under-the-radar transaction for Anaheim defenseman Josh Manson.
Avs, take advantage.
You are free to laugh. But come back and see me when Giroux is sitting on the couch watching the NHL Finals and Manson is on the ice.
Back in March, as the trade deadline approached, I recall some grousing from those who claim to know hockey that the Avs hadn’t done enough to better their championship chances. Joe, on the other hand, thought receiving Manson was a great deal.
The Avalanche’s addition of 6-foot-3, 215-pound Manson, a vital glue guy, is one significant reason to believe they won’t come apart this time in their pursuit of the Stanley Cup.
Even a knucklehead like me could see how Manson has made Colorado a lot tougher playoff out before he won Game 1 of this best-of-seven series against St. Louis with a bomb from the blue line in 8 minutes and 2 seconds into overtime.
He praised the hockey gods for allowing him to survive the wild celebration with his Colorado colleagues on Tuesday night, alleging Erik Johnson was three feet off the ice before leaping into his arms.
We’ll get to Manson’s underrated value in a moment. But first, let’s give thanks to Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog’s huge rear.
