DENVER —
Throwback night at Ball Arena was supposed to be all about nostalgia, quirk and vintage sweaters—the kind of retro treat that warms the heart of a hockey fan. Instead, it delivered a 5-4 shootout win for the Carolina Hurricanes over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, with more weird officiating, more blades being sanded with contact, and more scrappy heroics from Carolina while the Avalanche flirted with chaos. Throwback night? Maybe. But it felt more like a throwdown disguised as nostalgia.
The Hurricanes, with several regulars injured and missing defensemen, came in limping—and yet found a way to win. Goaltender Frederik Andersen stood tall with 44 saves through regulation and overtime, then stopped all three shooters in the shootout to seal the deal. The Avs out-shot the Canes 48 to 31, but as history—and now this game—reminds us: shots are pretty if they don’t win. The Hurricanes fell behind early (4-1 after the first), but clawed back. Their power play was atrocious though, something that must be drilled relentlessly in practice: Charlatan or not, the man-advantage unit still looked amateur hour.
Still, credit where it’s due: the Canes overcame three first-period goals (Eric Robinson, Seth Jarvis shorthanded, Sebastian Aho) and then one from Logan Stankoven to build a 4-1 lead. They absorbed the avalanche—pun intended—of Colorado’s second- and third-period push (Parker Kelly and Martin Nečas scoring to weasel the Avs to 4-3, and Valeri Nichushkin’s power-play goal tying it at 4-4 with 6:51 left). The Avs, meanwhile, benefited from referees who seemed to have misplaced their rule book. Colorado drew nine (!) power plays—nine chances to tilt the odds—and yet still lost. If you’re keeping track: that’s chaos, bias or horror show. Probably all three.
Which leads to the Avalanche’s dirty little secret: they posture as tough, hitting like the Rockies hit free-agency dollars, but scrub the moment opportunity knocks. They looked more like pretend tough guys than actual bruisers. And when you rely on penalty pucks and referees as much as you rely on polish, eventually someone out- hustles you. The Canes did that.
And oh yes—let’s talk about the refs. The same officials who seemed to gift the Avs those nine power plays also whistled inconsistently, allowed blatant kicks and elbows, and looked at some hits and shrugged. It was so lopsided one wondered if NHL commissioner Gary Bettman had slipped into the control room with a gambling book in hand—“Let’s bump the home team and keep the ratings rolling!”—channeling the kind of rig-the-game vibe you’d expect from a bracketed lottery, not the hardest sport on ice. I’m joking (kind of), but seriously: the optics were horrible.
Back to the Hurricanes: they proved that when called upon, depth and defense matter. Despite missing key pieces—lower-body for William Carrier, upper-body for Eric Robinson, defensemen K’Andre Miller and Jaccob Slavin out—they shelled up. Their penalty kill went 7-for-8. In a game where rules and refs seemed tilted, they said: “Thanks for the pity power plays; we’ll take it and win anyway.”
So yes, they still must fix the power-play identity (come on, you’ve got Aho, Ehlers, Jarvis—go get it). But they’re winning when they should be losing. That’s a good sign. Meanwhile the Avs—flashy offense, big names, huge budgets—looked a little hollow when the going got real. They had the shot count, the chances, the momentum—but spent too much time chirping and not enough finishing.
This throwback night will be remembered not for retro jerseys but for retro-level officiating and a dominant road team stealing two points. The Avalanche got caught tipping their own hat to luck and refs; the Hurricanes walked off the ice saying, “We’ll see you in shootouts and dents.”
If you’re a hockey purist, you dig this kind of ugly-pretty win—blood, bravado, battle. If you’re a fan of fairness, you grit your teeth—and hope the refs read the memo next time. The Canes won. Andersen was a monster. The Avs got the whistles, but not the win. And Denver? Maybe next throwback night they’ll invite better officiating instead of just better sweaters.
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