Colorado Avalanche Hockey Team

Their hearts and eyes were full, tears dampening the joy they knew they should have felt even in defeat. The Kings weren't supposed to get this far, not after battling for a playoff spot until the last weekend of the season and trading Rob Blake, one of the NHL's top defensemen and an impact player at both ends of the ice, to the Colorado Avalanche Feb. 21.

The Detroit Red Wings were taken to the limit by the St. Louis Blues in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs because the Blues' grinding, suffocating defensive style took them off their game, leaving them little room for their usual creative playmaking. But in the Colorado Avalanche, the Red Wings meet a team that's almost their twin. The Red Wings and the Avalanche, who ranked 1-2 in the conference and the NHL this season, rely on speed and finesse to score.

After a week of standing toe to toe with hockey's best team, the Kings finally looked up. Bumping their heads on a belly button. The fourth game of their Stanley Cup playoff series with the Colorado Avalanche Wednesday didn't need a final score, only a shift key. THIS IS THE AVALANCHE . . . these are the kings. It was a night not for harsh criticism--should we really dump on our lovable, go-figure skaters after all this?--but basic comparison.

Here's Paul Kariya skating past the blue line with the puck. He drops it to Peter Forsberg. Forsberg makes a pinpoint pass to Teemu Selanne. Selanne shoots and scores for the Mighty Ducks. Selanne's eyes widen and he breaks into a big smile when the idea of a Duck line of Kariya, Selanne and Forsberg is mentioned. A guy can dream can't he? "If I could pick one player other than Paul to play with it would be him," Selanne said of Forsberg. "He's the best all-around player in the game right now.

While his Colorado Avalanche teammates were battling the Florida Panthers in the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals, Claude Lemieux pedaled from Denver to Miami on an exercise bike. "You have to work out and be prepared," said the feisty right wing, serving a two-game suspension for what the NHL termed a premeditated cheap shot against Detroit's Kris Draper in the Western Conference finals.

Well, that was fun while it lasted. Can't wait to see if the Colorado Avalanche sticks to its appointed rounds and wins the Stanley Cup championship the organization firmly believes it is destined to win next month. If it comforts you, as a King fan, imagine it this way: your team didn't really lose Game 7 to the Avalanche.

Hope you enjoyed the ride. Please wait until the vehicle has come to a complete stop before you unbuckle your seat belt. Make sure you have all of your belongings before you exit. The Kings' magical journey through the playoffs is over. Your heartbeat can now return to its normal rate. There will be no more overtimes, no more one-goal victories, no more games at all this spring.

The Kings reluctantly began their summer vacation today, still wondering if they would be preparing for the Western Conference finals if not for a few unfortunate bounces in their 5-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche Wednesday in the seventh game of their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series. Nelson Emerson tied the score, 1-1, with 1:29 left in the second period, and Bryan Smolinski hit the post a few seconds before the period ended.

Gary Bettman, NHL commissioner, clearly did not like a question posed to him about the league's relatively tiny television ratings. He liked a comparison to the ratings of the late, lamentable XFL even less. "The XFL's deciding game did a 1.9 [rating]," Bettman said. "Our deciding game last year did a 4.2. So even on that standard, the comparison isn't accurate."

This King season ended where the last one did. In the Pepsi Center. In disappointment. In a four-goal defeat. The Colorado Avalanche sent the Kings unhappily into the off-season for the second consecutive year, closing out their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series Monday night with a 4-0 Game 7 victory in front of 18,007.