I think Avs fans and Caps haters are being delusional about this. Not that the Avs are a bad team. But their run two years ago was a fluke. This year was more realistic. They have a great, but YOUNG core. They now have a great,but fluky goalie. The absolute stupidest thing they could've ever done was give away their top pick next year, knowing they've been set up to pick pretty high.
As I said, the Avs aren't bad, but the West is so deep, I see it as almost impossible for them to compete next season. The Wild, the Oilers, Avs, Stars, Islanders, and Panthers will be competing for the top five picks.
What makes you say the 2009 season was the fluke and not the two seasons where they had one of the highest man games lost to injury and two back up goalies? The parody in hockey is ultra small, simply staying healthy plus the new players they've gotten makes the Avs a lot better team then people give credit. And simply go to the thread with people ranking recent draft picks to see how underrated Duchene is.