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May 17, 2024
Matt Duchene reflecting post-game Friday night. Dallas Stars
center Matt Duchene is 33 now, a well-traveled NHL veteran who was supposed to be a heart-warming story added to the
Avalanche archives. Well, maybe that's what it was -- for a while. As
a kid in Haliburton, Ontario, Duchene alternatively imagined himself as Joe Sakic or Peter Forsberg. He had a framed and autographed
Sakic jersey in his basement bedroom. He cried when the Avalanche lost big games. He exulted
when they won. "I took it harder back then when they lost than I do now," Duchene told Adrian Dater and me for
our 2014 book, Save By Roy. "I know that sounds crazy. You're day by day now, and you're more mature,
but when they lost in the playoffs, I bawled my eyes out a couple of times as a young kid."
When Alex Tanguay
scored what turned out to be the Avalanche's game-winning goal in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Devils in 2001,
a young Duchene in Haliburton had a bucket of popcorn in his lap, jumped up and spilled the popcorn all over.
Eventually, the Avalanche claimed him with the third pick of the 2009 draft, and it seemed a rare perfect fit of franchise and young star-to-be.
As Duchene Friday night discussed scoring the series-ending
goal at 11:42 of the second overtime, giving the Stars a 2-1 victory and a six-game win in the second round, I couldn't
help but think back to how this really should have been the setup for another Sakic-like career run with one franchise. It wasn't. Duchene spent eight seasons and part of a ninth with Colorado. The relationship
turned sour, though, and Patrick Roy's 2016 anger at Duchene for giddily celebrating his 30th goal in a decisive loss bolstered
his reputation as selfish.
Instead, he was with Dallas Friday night. In the second OT, after a scramble in front, he got the puck over a prone Alexandar Georgiev to end it.
He charged toward center ice, sliding on his knees in celebration. Later, Duchene was engaging, classyand even funny in his post-game interviews with the TNT
studio crew and in the media room. There still are Avalanche fans who boo him every time he touches the puck -- around here,
that's known as the Bertuzzi treatment -- and this all was a reminder that perhaps it's time to move on.
On TNT's studio show, Anson Carter asked Duchene about whether the goal meant more because
it was in Denver -- against his former team.
"I have a lot of fond memories of being an Av," Duchene said. "They
were my favorite team growing up and it was an absolute honor to be here. It was one of the hardest things I ever had
to do, to kind of ask out. We were just at a crossroads. They turned it around really quick and I was really happy for them
when they won [the Stanley Cup in 2022]. It was tough, but at the same time a little bittersweet for sure. They swept us [Nashville]
in the first round and then went on to win. . . You kind of maybe wonder had I stayed if I would have won. But at the same
time, God had a plan for me and I'm just living out that plan. "It's kind of fitting, I guess, that things went the way they did [Friday] night,
in a barn and a place that meant a lot to me. My wife's from here and I have friends and now family that are from here. I
have nothing but fond memories as an Av, and nothing but good feelings toward them."
When
he was at the interview area in the press room, he said of the current Avalanche: "Their top-end guys are as good as
anyboy. What a year Nate [MacKinnon] had. I'm really happy for him and
hopefully he gets the results with the awards he probably deserves. Cale [Makar], obviously unbelievable. Mikko [Rantanen].
Those guys, this was their house this year . I think we just did it as a team. Simple answer, it's really hard to shut those
guys down. We did our best. You're never going to shut them out, but you can limit them, I guess." Duchene noted
that the longer the game went Friday night, the more the Stars' depth was an advantage. "I looked at the monitor beside the bench," Duchene
said. "I think it was the TNT monitor. I looked at the minutes. Our top forwards were 10 minutes less than their top
forwards. They have some people who are borderlline super-human over there, but at some point you might hit a wall. I remember
yelling down the bench during the first OT that the more this goes, the more it benefits us." OK, there's a little Eddie Haskell in all
of that. (Young readers: Ask your grandparents) But Duchene skipped the chance to take digs.
With the Avalanche, Duchene pressed for a trade, in part because he chafed at often
playing wing under Roy and then Jared Bednar. This MacKinnon kid was going to be the first-line center for years to come and
the Avs weren't convinced this could be another pick-your-poison two-line punch, with MacKinnon and Duchene playing Sakic
and Forsberg. Duchene, a natural center, wanted to be in the middle. He also had taken a "bridge" contract to aid the Avalanche rebuild and he felt as if
that wasn't sufficiently appreciated. The Avalanche eventually obliged, sending him to the Ottawa
Senators early in the 2017-18 season. The Stars are his fifth NHL team, with stops at Columbus and Nashville following his
stay at Ottawa. The Predators were committed to a rebuild, and they bought out his seven-year contract after three seasons.
He's on a one-year, $3-million deal with Dallas. His 25-goal regular season with the Stars had its ups and downs, but
he made good on the chance to show he still can play -- after all, he had 43 goals as recently as two years ago for the Predators
-- and to dispel that persistent image as a locker room lawyer. And he'll
be with somebody next season and available to be booed in Ball Arena. Most likely, it will be with Dallas. At least so far,
it's a good fit and Duchene is counted on more as a supplemental part than a star. "When I had the
opportunity here, it's one I jumped at," he said of Dallas. "I obviously didn't expect to be in that position but
God works in mysterious ways. From the time I signed here I've been looking forward to these opportunities. My teammates and
coaches have been just amazing, taking me in and helping me. . . This is only the second time I've been past the first round
in my career and now we're going to the conference finals. At 33, I think there's a certain level of appreciation you have
that you wouldn't have had as a younger player." Perhaps somewhere in Ontario, a young Avalanche fan was crying Friday night.
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