Burakovsky has won a Stanley Cup, but wants Avs “to write our own story”

The biggest stars on the Colorado Avalanche have never reached the mountain top in the NHL.

For Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen and plenty of other guys, this will be their first time in the Stanley Cup Final.

One of the few members of the team with championship experience is forward Andre Burakovsky. He won a title with the Washington Capitals in 2018 when they took down the Vegas Golden Knights. In fact, he scored two goals in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final against Tampa Bay, so he was a big reason Washington reached the Final.

The Lightning will, of course, be Colorado’s opponent when the 2022 Final begins on Wednesday night at Ball Arena. Burakovsky is not only familiar with the opponent, but the stage as well. After practice on Monday, Burakovsky was asked if his experience can help his teammates and what it’s like to return to the biggest series in the NHL.

“It’s definitely a good feeling to be back in the Final. It doesn’t happen too often and it doesn’t happen for everyone, so I’m really excited to be back, especially with this team. I think we’ve been really successful for the previous years here and I think the progress that we’ve gone through as a group has been really good,” Burakovsky said.

But in terms of leaning on that championship experience from his days in Washington, Burakovsky said this is a new group looking to make their own history.

“I think we just want to write our own story. I’m not looking back too much on what we did (in Washington) to be able to win. This is a new group, a new organization and we’re going to write our own story here,” Burakovsky said.

The Avs forward took a puck off his leg / foot in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final against the Oilers and was forced to leave the contest early. He missed Games 2 and 3, but was able to play in the series-clinching victory in Game 4. The original injury happened on May 31 and he felt good enough to be out there on June 6, so consider Burakovsky healed. And especially with this long break, he acknowledged he’s felt better for a little bit now.

“I don’t know, a couple of days ago maybe. I felt pretty good on the ice today. Moving good and been doing a lot of treatment and definitely progress. It feels better for sure,” Burakovsky said of the ailment.

Colorado appears to be getting healthier as a team as the Final approaches, but the status of Nazem Kadri and Andrew Cogliano isn’t totally clear. Head coach Jared Bednar said on Sunday that neither guy had been ruled out for Game 1 yet. The only regular who is for sure out for the series is defenseman Samuel Girard, after he broke his sternum in Round 2 against the Blues.

The Avs first Stanley Cup Final game since 2001 is about 52 hours away. As Burakvosky said, they’ll look to write their own story and deliver a title back to Denver for the first time in 21 years.

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