The Avs’ bandwagon has a full tank of gas and is steamrolling everything in its path on a revenge tour against the hockey gods.

If this quest for the Stanley Cup feels personal, that’s because the Avs, starting with superstar Nathan MacKinnon, are taking it very personally.

After toppling the Kings and taming the Wild in the NHL playoffs, the Avalanche are only halfway home on the road to a championship.

In a violent sport where success is measured in furious 45-second shifts, a man in dogged pursuit of the Cup has precious little time to stop and look at the big picture. 

Maybe that’s why something MacKinnon said Tuesday, on the eve of Game 1 in the Western Conference final, hit as hard as a crosscheck into the boards.

Pondering the often-frustrating four years that have passed since he took his first and only big gulp from the Cup, MacKinnon volunteered how the hockey gods messed with Colorado since that victory parade back in 2022.

“We felt like we were robbed a little bit after we won,” MacKinnon said.

Robbed? How so?

The answer irks him.

“I know our playoff success recently hasn’t been that great,” MacKinnon said. “But I think there are some circumstances for that.”

The best player in the league wasn’t cursing the Avalanche’s bad luck or asking for sympathy. 

No, this was MacKinnon, now 30 years old, with 13 seasons of hard-earned experience in the league, reconciling how quickly a championship window can close, while expressing gratitude for another shot at hoisting the Cup.

What coach Jared Bednar is attempting to do with this group of Colorado players simply doesn’t happen in the NHL any longer.

While true hockey dynasties have gone the way of the dinosaur, dominant teams tend to quickly cash in their talent for rings.

Florida won back-to-back championships in 2024-25, after Tampa Bay pulled off the same feat in 2019-20 and Pittsburgh raised banners in 2016 and 2017.

The win-big-or-go-home trap on NHL benches is so dangerous that Bednar would be the first coach to survive four years between successful championship runs since Scotty Bowman pulled off the feat with the Detroit Red Wings way back in 1998 and 2002.

Unlike many championship teams, the Avalanche didn’t grow stale and fall into a complacency trap by stubbornly trying to run it back, because Colorado never really got the chance to make that mistake.

Among the 19 players who contributed to the 2-1 victory in Tampa that clinched the Cup for the Avs in 2022, only nine remain with the club.

It sounds like a reasonable amount of turnover that shouldn’t be a threat to the sustainability of a championship culture unless, like MacKinnon, you consider how three of those nine key contributors spent the past three seasons on long, twisted roads of their own.

For over 1,000 days, captain Gabe Landeskog fought injury that threatened to prematurely end his career.

“Over the three years, it was challenging. It was: ‘Will he be able to? Won’t he be able to?’” Avalanche General Manager Chris MacFarland said. “But what there was never a doubt on was: He deserved the right to see it through.”

Winger Val Nichushkin waged a battle with the demons of substance abuse.

“Val went through a tough time, and I’m super proud of him,” MacFarland said. “He’s a human being … he’s a father … and he’s a damn good hockey player.”

And center Naz Kadri bolted to Calgary as a free agent to get paid, before returning to Colorado during the waning minutes of the trade deadline in March.

“We’re in this to win this,” MacFarland said. “We know the narrative; we’re fine with the narrative.”

The absences of Landeskog, Nichushkin and Kadri forced the Avs to consider ways to reinvent themselves, which is often the most painful reckoning for a team that has won it all. 

The hockey gods can be cruel.

The Avalanche has yet to face anything resembling real playoff adversity through two rounds, although the injury to defenseman Cale Makar that again kept him off the ice during the final full practice before Game 1 against Las Vegas is a reminder not to tempt fate.

Playoff hockey can be physically taxing and mentally draining.

“It doesn’t feel like a grind at all to me,” MacKinnon said. “We’re all having a lot of fun.”

While there’s deep respect for the Golden Knights, Las Vegas is nothing more than the next stop on this revenge tour.

What the Avs are waging is a battle against their unfulfilled destiny as a truly dominant team in NHL history.