2004 FNHL Cup Champions

Colorado Avalanche

Led By GM: Peter Martin

Row 1: Roman Cechmanek, Garth Snow

Row 2: Adam Oates, Brendan Shanahan, Jaromir Jagr, Rob Blake, Derian Hatcher

Row 3: Keith Primeau, Steve Konowalchuk, Pavel Bure, Bryan Marchment, Mattias Norstrom

Row 4: Saku Koivu, Martin Gelinas, Kris Draper, Sami Salo, Phil Housley

Row 5: Mark Messier, Jan Hlavac

Not Pictured: Stephane Richer

Only The Strongest Could Survive:

FNHL Cup Finals: Colorado vs New Jersey. Colorado the heavy favorites and they get crushed. Time for the offseason and have to rebuild a team that is retiring and too old to make a real contribution. GM Peter Martin goes out and acquires youthful and talented players to fill up his roster. Through a series of trades, they ended up with players like Roman Cechmanek, Pavel Bure, Rob Blake, Steve Konowalchuk, Bryan Marchment, Saku Koivu, Eric Weinrich, Mattias Norstrom, Keith Primeau, Adam Oates, Sami Salo, Martin Gelinas, Stephane Richer, Garth Snow, Jan Hlavac, Phil Housley, and others. They built the team back up from scratch and finally produced something that was good enough to take it all. The regular season was a breeze, especially since they were in first place for every single day of the regular season. The end of the season and the playoffs were not as easy to stomach. Going into the playoffs, Colorado knew they would be without Roman Cechmanek and Steve Konowalchuk for most of the first round if not more. Not too many teams can easily win a 4 game series without their starting goalie and their second line winger. Snow stepped it up and delivered what he could for the Avs. The playoffs had many other injuries for Colorado such as Saku Koivu and Sami Salo. Colorado proved this season that even the best team in the league will never have a cake-walk through the season and regular playoffs. IF they were not as responsible as they were in getting a back-up goalie, this team may have had a 0-3 hole in the first round against Calgary. Colorado will enjoy this victory but not for long as they will have a lot of rebuilding to do if they plan on reaching the finals for the third year in a row. Let's not forget the chance to win the President's trophy for 3 straight years as well. Colorado, you have been the team feared for two straight seasons, time to celebrate and reek havoc another year.