Is this guy serious? During the Colorado Avalanche’s 2022 Stanely Cup banner raising ceremony last night, Jack Johnson joined the celebrations and team photos…even though he now plays for the Chicago Blackhawks.
Is it just me or is this a big ‘no-no’? If you leave the team that had just won the Stanley Cup, regardless of if it was done through retirement, free agency, or getting traded, you don’t then rejoin them for an hour to lift the championship banner. You forfeited that right by LEAVING!
Though, I guess old Jack Johnson didn’t see it that way as he shamelessly left his new teammates, who were waiting in the opposing team tunnel, to skate around, take pictures, and lift the Stanely Cup one last time. Jack, you’re not an Avalanche anymore.
You willingly left the Avalanche to take a bigger paycheck with the Chicago Blackhawks, just like Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, Darcey Kuemper did with their new teams.
To be honest, Johnson leaving his teammates to lift the championship banner of another team reeks of him regretting signing with the Blackhawks. Now, I don’t blame him as the Avalanche are the reigning Stanley Cup Champions, while the Blackhawks are one of the worst teams in the NHL.
But that doesn’t matter. Johnson is a Blackhawk and should have acted like one.
Though, maybe I’m just thinking too old school and most people don’t actually care too much about it. Idk.
Anway, Johnson’s move to Chicago didn’t end up helping in the game as the Avalanche routed the Blackhawks from the first minute.
Even without captain Gabriel Landeskog, the Avalanche ripped apart the Blackhawks in every facet of the game, though especially on the power play. Sharing four goals between the pair, Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen lead the 5-2 route the Avalanche laid on the Blackhawks in each team’s opening night.
Out of all of the opening games this week, this is the one that has the littlest of significance as to how the rest season will play out for these two teams.
Like I said, the Avalanche are the best team in the NHL and the Blackhawks are the worst team in the NHL. Even when one of their best players and a vocal leader, Gabe Landeskog, is out, the Avalanche can still pump teams for 5 goals. Reversely, even when one of the opposing team’s best players is out, the Blackhawks will still find a way to lose by three and give up 5 goals.
This game just proved that fact if anything.
Though, if this game did represent anything, it’s the changing of the guard between two dynasties in the NHL.
The Blackhawks dynasty of the 2010’s has now been reduced to a battered down Jonathan Toews and a 33-year-old Patrick Kane, while this Avalanche team has the required superstars (Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog), depth pieces, and confidence to win two more Stanley Cups in this decade to create their own dynasty.
This game can be seen as a symbolic ‘torch-swapping’ between a past and present great power of the NHL.
Images Source: Featured Image:
