Tampa Bay is the hockey team the Avs want to be when they grow up and are tough enough to win the Stanley Cup.
With startling honesty, not to mention deep respect for the two-time defending NHL champs, Colorado coach Jared Bednar readily admits he has talked to his players about using the recent success of Tampa Bay as “a perfect sort of blueprint” for the Avs to hoist the Cup and overcome the frustration resulting from being bounced during the second round of the playoffs in each of the last three years.
The Lightning, Bednar said, “found a way to get the job done, not without some heartbreak.