Eurolanche

The Avs’ forgotten trip

The year was 2001. The Colorado Avalanche were Stanley Cup Champions. We all remember that. What most Colorado fans don’t remember is the team’s first journey to Europe. Three months after their big victory, the Avalanche and their star-studded roster flew to Stockholm for training camp as part of the 2001 NHL Challenge. Four games were scheduled to be played as part of the event, one of them even in Helsinki, Finland.

Everything changed on the second day after the team’s arrival in Sweden. On the very same day, the 9/11 attacks took place. The USA were under the attack of terrorist. All of a sudden, the entire group was trapped in Europe. Nothing flew to the US. Ultimately, the Avalanche played one game in a gloomy atmosphere and flew back home less than a week after their arrival.

The Eurolanche Fan Club looked back at this long-forgotten European training camp with the help of various sources and prepared a unique broad overview of this event. A lot of facts were unknown to fans up until now. You can read the entire article in the special Sweden 2001 section. 

The 2001 NHL Challenge logo is a trademark of the National Hockey League, © NHL 2017. The logo is being used with permission, and is courtesy of the NHL.