The dialogue on 960 then shifted to how the Colorado Avalanche had undergone such a dramatic turnaround from last season to this season, with an emphasis on how last year people were questioning the dressing room, that group of players, the coach, and all of it.
Now look at them, as co-host Rhett Warrener said.
The obvious parallel with the Flames was implied.
“And you know what happened? I was talking to Joe Sakic about this at the GM meetings,” noted Friedman. “So this year at the beginning of the year, they do a players’ tour. One guy from every team comes to New York and they meet with the media and they do interviews.
“And one of the reasons that Nathan MacKinnon is near the top of my MVP list and I think a lot of other peoples’ is I was expecting him to walk in there and Matt Duchene asked out and the situation is so bad and Nathan MacKinnon walks in and he says, ‘I absolutely will not tolerate another season like last year and I’ve got to be part of the solution.’ He says, ‘I can’t wait to do well with the Avalanche because I know what it’s like to do badly with the Avalanche.’ And when your best player shows up with that attitude…
“The other thing Sakic said was all of those guys, especially the kids, they worked out there in the summer. A couple of their young players, like Jost, they stayed there in the summer. MacKinnon spent some time with them. Erik Johnson flew in or drove in from California to spend time with them. That was a group that Sakic said the one thing he knew was that was a group that was committed to be better. He knew what he saw in the summer that at least the attitude was going to be different.
“And to me, so much of life is about attitude. If you have a crappy attitude, you’re going to have a crappy time. If you look at the mirror and say, ‘The best chance I have to make things better is to do the most work I can to prepare and to have the best possible attitude,’ you give yourself the best possible chance.
“And I do think that Colorado – they didn’t make a ton of changes from last year. They made one big trade, but it’s not a trade that really helped them for now. Girard looks like he’s going to be a good player, but it’s not like Duchene for Girard now is going to make them better. I think it’s simply that you had a bunch of guys who said, ‘We’re not that bad. We’re better than this and we’re going to prove it.’
“And they have.”
