page_title: Colorado Avalanche
section_title: 2005–2009: New beginnings
hierarchical_section_title: Colorado Avalanche / Franchise history / Colorado Avalanche (1995–present) / 2005–2009: New beginnings
caption_attribution_description: Ryan Smyth warming up before a game in Calgary, Alberta
context_page_description: The Colorado Avalanche are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver. They compete in the National Hockey League as a member of the Central Division of the Western Conference. The Avalanche are the only team in their division not based in the Central Time Zone; the team is situated in the Mountain Time Zone. Their home arena is Pepsi Center, which they share with the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association. Their general manager is Joe Sakic.
  The Avalanche were founded in 1972 as the Quebec Nordiques and were one of the charter franchises of the World Hockey Association. The franchise joined the NHL in 1979 as a result of the NHL–WHA merger. Following the 1994–95 season, they were sold to the COMSAT Entertainment Group and relocated to Denver.
  In the club's first season in Denver, the Avalanche won the Pacific Division and went on to sweep the Florida Panthers in the 1996 Stanley Cup Finals, becoming the first NHL team to win the Stanley Cup in the season following a relocation. Among teams in the major North American professional sports leagues, only the National Football League's 1937 Washington Redskins have also accomplished the feat.
context_section_description: After the 2004–05 NHL lockout and the implementation of a salary cap, the Avalanche were forced to release some of their top players. Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote were lost to free agency to save room in the cap for Joe Sakic and Rob Blake. Although the salary cap was a blow to one of the highest spenders of the league, the Colorado Avalanche finished the 2005–06 regular season with a 43–30–9 record for 95 points, good enough to finish second in the Northwest Division, seven behind the Calgary Flames and tied with the Edmonton Oilers. The season paused in February for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. The Avalanche sent an NHL leading 11 players from eight countries. Finnish Antti Laaksonen earned the silver medal, while Ossi Vaananen ended up not playing because of an injury; Czech Milan Hejduk won a bronze medal. In the Western Conference Quarter-finals, Colorado defeated the team with the second-best record in the Western Conference, the Dallas Stars, in five games. In the Conference Semi-finals, the Avalanche were swept for the first time ever, coming at the hands of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The day after the loss, Pierre Lacroix, who had been the general manager of the franchise since 1994 when they were in Quebec, resigned, where Francois Giguere was then hired as his replacement. Lacroix remained president of the franchise until spring 2013, when the team owner's son, Josh Kroenke, took over as team president and governor. Pierre Lacroix remains an advisor to the team.
  By the beginning of the 2006–07 season, Joe Sakic and Milan Hejduk were the only two remaining members from the 2000–01 Stanley Cup-winning squad. Sakic was the only player left from the team's days in Quebec, though Hejduk was drafted by the Nordiques. Paul Stastny, son of Nordiques legend Peter Stastny, also provided a link to the franchise's past. Before the previous season's playoffs, in a move reminiscent of Patrick Roy's trade, the Avalanche traded goaltender David Aebischer to the Montreal Canadiens for the Vezina Trophy-winning Jose Theodore. However, the move would not turn out to be as successful. Theodore posted a 13–15–1 record in 2006–07, with an .891 save percentage and 3.26 goals against average (GAA), with his US$6 million salary becoming a heavy burden for the Avalanche in the salary cap era. During the 2006–07 season, an eleven year sell out streak of 487 home games was ended on October 16, 2006, in a home game against the Chicago Blackhawks that saw the Pepsi Center under the capacity by 326 seats. The sell out streak is an all-time NHL record for the longest consecutive attendance sell outs at home games with 487; and began on November 9, 1995, on the Avalanche's eighth regular season home game during the 1995–96 season at the McNichols Sports Arena.
  The Avalanche missed the playoffs for the 2006–07 season, missing it for the first time since 1993–94, when they were still in Quebec. The team had a 15–2–2 run in the last 19 games of the season to keep their playoffs hopes alive until the penultimate day of the season. A 4–2 loss against the Nashville Predators on April 7, with former player Peter Forsberg assisting the game-winning goal scored by another former player, Paul Kariya, eliminated Colorado from the playoff race. As consolation, the team won the last game of the season against the Calgary Flames the following day and finished fourth in the Northwest Division and ninth in the Western Conference with a 44–31–7 record for 95 points, one less than eighth-seeded Calgary. Nonetheless, the result was greater than expected by hockey pundits; Sports Illustrated previewed before the start of the season that the Avalanche would finish 13th in the Western Conference. During that last game of the season, Joe Sakic scored a goal and two assists and became the second-oldest player in NHL history to reach 100 points, behind only Gordie Howe, who had 103 points at age 40 in the 1968–69 season. During the season, Paul Stastny set an NHL record for longest point streak by a rookie, with 20 games, three more than the previous 
caption: The Avalanche signed Ryan Smyth prior to the 2007–08 season.
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