Avalanche players know legacies can be defined by this Stanley Cup Final

About seven years ago I was asked to write a story for a local sports magazine on a new member of the Avalanche.

The kid was a first-round pick, so I knew it was a cool opportunity, but I certainly didn’t know much about him.

His name was Mikko Rantanen and my editor told me I could coordinate with the Avs to meet him after practice at Family Sports Center in Centennial. I had been to the arcade a handful of times, but never for a professional hockey practice.

When I arrived I made my way to the rinks and saw about 10 guys doing skating sprints on their own. No one was around, no fanfare, and it certainly didn’t seem like these were members of a pro hockey team. I was able to figure out who Rantanen was by a small number taped to his helmet, but that was my only way of identifying him.

After 30 minutes of pushing himself extremely hard, a totally gassed Rantanen exited the iced and looked at me. I was standing there with a tape recorder and probably looked out of place.

“Hey man, my name’s Will Petersen and I’m writing a story on you. Did you know I was coming down? Do you have a few minutes to talk?”

Rantanen certainly wasn’t rude, but clearly had no idea I’d be there. “Sure,” he said still gasping for air.

The interview itself wasn’t particularly memorable. But the setup was. Here I stood, just a couple hundred feet from children playing games for prizes, interviewing the No. 10 overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft. Mikko answered my questions and was on his way, and I headed home to put together a feature story on a 18-year-old kid from Finland.

Flash forward to now, to today, and Rantanen will play in his first ever Stanley Cup Final game later tonight. He’s played in a lot of big games before, but nothing that will match this atmosphere.

I’ve talked to him a few times over the years, but what I witnessed on Tuesday in the Grand Atrium at Ball Arena was completely different. This was big. It was the most media I’ve ever seen in one place for a hockey event.

The 2022 Stanley Cup Final Media Day wasn’t as crazy as the two Super Bowl Media Days I’ve attended, but it was still chaotic. Hundreds of media members from all over the world descended on Denver to talk to the Avalanche and Lightning ahead of the biggest series in their sport.

And there was an elephant in the room, as the Stanley Cup was fully on display at the NHL Network set. The Conn Smythe Trophy, given to the MVP of the playoffs, sat right next to it.

It’s here and it’s unbelievable 😍 pic.twitter.com/iIOQKaoaT2

— Will Petersen (@PetersenWill) June 14, 2022

“I’m focused on Game 1. I’m sorry to be boring, but I’m not going to let my imagination go there,” Rantanen said when asked about being in the same room as the Cup.

Nathan MacKinnon, arguably Colorado’s best player, echoed a similar sentiment.

“Obviously, it’s big,” Mackinnon said of the series. “I’m trying not to let my mind wander too much. Obviously, the focus is on Game 1.”

Captain Gabriel Landeskog was on the same page as his linemates for most of the last few seasons.

“I’m sure there will be some nerves there. I think that shows you’re human and it’s part of it,” Landeskog said of taking the ice ahead of Game 1. “It’s good having two young children at home keeping me busy. It forces you to stay in the present.”

And stay in the present the Avalanche must do. The Lightning are the two-time defending champions for a reason. They’re disciplined, skilled and probably have the top goalie on Earth in Andrei Vasilevskiy. They haven’t won two of these things in a row by cutting corners.

While Mackinnon, Landeskog, Rantanen and Cale Makar will get the headlines in this series, winning it is of paramount importance to every single guy on the team. Almost all of them have never tasted that kind of success (sans a guy like Andre Burakovsky), and know this moment will help define their legacies.

Take someone like defenseman Erik Johnson, for example. The die-hard Avs fan will know him, the casual Colorado fan will think the name sounds familiar, and any given hockey fan around the country might ask, “who?” But for Johnson, this is something he’s waited his entire career for.

“I’ve been here a long time; 12, 13 seasons, something like that. This is kind of your life’s work. This is what everyone works for as a kid. There’s always that void if you don’t win the Cup as a player,” Johnson said.

That’s the thing not only for Johnson, but every guy on the Avs; they don’t know if they’ll be back. But they do know winning this trophy can (fairly or not) define whether or not a career is successful.

Tuesday’s atmosphere was unlike anything most of the Avalanche players have seen. Of course these guys know this moment is big, but it probably hit them just how big.

Mikko Rantanen and I ended up back together, doing another interview, and we certainly will again. But the Stanley Cup Final is a long way from Family Sports Center, even if it’s just a 30-minute drive down I-25. The skating sprints all those years ago laid the groundwork — and legacies are now on the line.

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