If you’re looking for someone to root for in the Stanley Cup Finals now that the Washington Capitals aren’t in it (ugh), look no further than the Colorado Avalanche who have Andre Burakovsky looking to bring his Cup winning experience to that team.
In last night’s Game 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, it was Burakovsky who won the game in overtime, ripping a shot too fast for Andrei Vasilevskiy to stop. Tampa’s goalie, who won back to back Cups with the Bolts must’ve been thinking, “oh no, not again.”
Four years ago Burakovsky was a healthy scratch in Game 5 against the Lighting. Two games later it was his two goals that helped the Caps punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Finals. We all know what happened after that.
Burakovsky scored a career high 22 goals in the regular season with the Avalanche. So far in the playoffs he has two goals and four assists for six points. After winning a Cup with the Caps, Burakovsky looks to win multiple with his new team.
Even though it was his second finals, according to Samantha Pell of The Washington Post, who was present covering the finals, Burakovsky told reporters he had trouble sleeping the night before with all the excitement surrounding Game 1 and woke up at 6 a.m. His teammate, Gabriel Landeskog told him “Just wait till you have kids. You’ll be up at 6 a.m. everyday.”
Burakovsky’s goal came just 83 seconds into overtime. Game 2 is on Saturday night in Denver. Like in his time with the Caps, Burakovsky has had a roller coaster postseason with the Avs. He was a healthy scratch for two games in the second round and suffered an injury during the Western Conference Finals.
Burakovsky took some maintenance days leading up to Game 1 and played in just 12:34 minutes in Game 1 but he stepped up when he needed to, continuing to prove his doubters wrong.
Burakovsky is looking to become the first member from the 2018 Caps Cup winning team to win a second title. The Avalanche are three wins away from their first Cup since 2001.
Burakovsky, although showing how much he’s moved on with his new club, did reflect on his time in Washington with Pell:
"“I had an unbelievable time with Washington, and to be on the first team in team history to win the Cup was absolutely something special. When I reflect back on it, the team we had, we came together as a group, and I think that is very important this time of year and especially the finals.”"
Good luck to Andre Burakovsky and the Colorado Avalanche. If anybody could stop the Lightning’s dominance, it’s this group for sure.