Who’s s your Gruuu-Daddy?
When the Avalanche needed it goalie Philipp Grubauer stared into the teeth of the Sharks and refused to blink. Could this be the birth of a playoff legend? In a victory against San Jose that evened this playoff series at two victories apiece, Grubauer stopped all 32 shots he faced.
And after Avalanche fans saluted their new best friend with a shout that cleansed the stadium of tension:
“Gruuu! ”
We haven’t heard a sound so sweet around here because Patrick Roy was between the pipes. Gruuu is the glue that holds championship dreams together for Colorado, the team to qualify for the playoffs in the Western Conference. Grubauer’s occupation? It’s not complicated and, right now, he s making the job seem easy.
“The more we can keep the zero up there (on the scoreboard), the better it is. The better chance we must win,” stated the 27-year-old native of Rosenheim, Germany.
If Grubauer strolled down the street of his hometown he like a banker than a puck cushion. But bank on this: Without his development as a legitimate No.1 goalie late in the regular season, the Avs will be playing golf now rather than hockey.
Is Grubauer powerful in goal for the Avs to win the Stanley Cup?
You betcha.
“Without him, I don’t know where we’d be … He stepped up, and he’s probably one of the greatest goalies in the league right now, the way he’s played lately,” stated Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson, impressed by how far the hard-working Grubauer has improved during the past six months. “I wouldn’t need anyone else at this time. ”
So much work, through winter ’ from training camp’s sweat s long slog, after all those morning skates. And it came down to a Thursday night in May, when backing down was a choice for Colorado.
Since Avalanche players pulled on their burgundy-and-blue sweaters for the 91st time because the puck was first dropped way back in early October, they had a victory with the most urgency of the entire 2018-19 season.
“It’s the biggest game of the year, no question,” Tyson Barrie said in the morning skate. “We all know that. ”
Colorado understood all too well that if this best-of-seven series moved to San Jose in the jaws of Sharks, the Avalanche might never get back home with their playoff hopes alive for Game 6.
This ’s the thing, though. Plus it s no trivial thing. In a time when the lights go out in the Pepsi Center, and there s playoff strain almost 24/7, the stadium can be a very different place from one evening to the next. When the Nuggets are on the basketball court, a fickle audience demands to be entertained, and when Jamal Murray and the gang are clanking jump shots, the home team gets booed.
Hockey nights at Colorado nurture a brand of hope. In the moment fans shout “Our flag was still there! ” with hearts during the national anthem, they have the back of Gabe Landeskog and the boys, these Avalanche die-hards in the stadium give Colorado players a emotional push.
Midway through the second period, when the speed of the Avs started to rock San Jose back on its heels, Colorado finally broke a scoreless tie. The goal came off the stick of Nathan MacKinnon, who chopped it into the back of the net and jumped on a puck.
But the actual chaos of this play was initiated by defenseman Cale Makar, who sent a screamer of a shot. His shot was deflected off the right shoulder of San Jose goalie Martin Jones by Mikko Rantanen, leaving a juicy rebound for MacKinnon to convert into a 1-0 Colorado lead.
Here in Broncos Country, we all love the started-in-Mom’s basement rise of young running back Phillip Lindsay. However, what Makar is performing at age 20, fresh out of college, with no formal NHL training before being thrown into the fire of the playoffs? It’s reality blasting fiction directly. This is a baseball story so sweet that nobody could make up this stuff.
Colin Wilson added a power-play goal in the third period, set up with a can-you-believe-it, through-his-own-legs, backhand pass from Rantanen as he tumbled to the ice at the crease. Johnson ended the suspense with on a long empty-netter with 69 seconds remaining in the match.
But the true star of this night, when shedding was not an option?
The audience in the Pepsi Center knew. The vote of 18,110 peeps in the stadium was unanimous and so loud it raised the roof:
“Gruuu! ”
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