Colorado Avalanche Tickets

The Colorado Avalanche are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver, Colorado. They play in the National Hockey League (NHL). The team started play in 1972 as the Quebec Nordiques of the World Hockey Association. During the seven WHA seasons, the Nordiques won the Avco Cup Championship once, in 1977. Two years later, they entered the NHL, along with the Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes) and the Winnipeg Jets (now the Phoenix Coyotes). When they've found themselves experiencing on-ice success but off-ice financial failure during the lockout shortened 1994-95 NHL season team owner Marcel Aubut asked for a bailout from Quebec's provincial government. The bailout fell through and Aubut subsequently sold the team to a group of investors in Denver. The franchise moved to Colorado and was renamed the Colorado Avalanche. Colorado entered their first season in Denver with a very strong lineup that included such excellent players as captain Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, and defensive stalwart Adam Foote. The most important day for the franchise came in the trade of first round pick Eric Lindros. Lindros refused to play for the Nords citing the small town and the uncompetitive team. His trade brought in Peter Forsberg and eventual deals brought in such stars as Ray Bourque, Alex Tanguay, Patrick Roy, and Rob Blake among other great players. The original trade brought a first round pick, Steve Duchesne, Mike Ricci, Jocelyn Thibault, Chris Simon, Kerry Huffman, Ron Hextall, and $15 million to the Nords. The following season, the team had a good year, but was unable to repeat as Stanley Cup champions, falling to the eventual champion Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference Finals 4-2. The team continued to have strong teams that went deep into the post season, but failed to reach the Stanley Cup Finals, until the 2000-01 NHL season. The proceeding season (1999-2000) they picked up Hall of Fame defenseman Ray Bourque who until that time had only ever played for the Boston Bruins and wanted one more shot at a Stanley Cup. Bourque had requested a trade and the Bruins facilitated a deal. On the 6th of March, 2000, Bourque was traded to Colorado with Dave Andreychuk for Brian Rolston, Martin Grenier, Samuel Pahlsson, and a first round pick. But the team was not done trading when they got Bourque. The following season, they further strengthened their defense with the acquisition of star defenseman Rob Blake and defensive center Steven Reinprecht from the Los Angeles Kings for Adam Deadmarsh and Aaron Miller on the 21st of February, 2001.