Second Season Success: Tracking Colorado’s playoff presence

This story originally appeared in Mile High Sports Magazine. Read the full digital edition.

Thank goodness for the Colorado Mammoth and the Colorado Eagles. Their success in the 2016-17 seasons ensured that there will be at least some postseason play in the Centennial State this year.

Given the recent postseason futility of the Nuggets (absent from the playoffs four years running) and the Avs (three years), May hasn’t offered much to celebrate of late. What used to be an annual rite of spring – playoff parties at Pepsi Center – has become more and more a distant memory. And with the Broncos missing the postseason last year for the first time in six years, it’s understandable that sports fans in Denver might be feeling a little playoff void.

That’s probably because postseason play in the Mile High City has been more the rule than the exception (except for the Rockies and Sky Sox) here in the 21^st century. In fact, since the year 2000, Colorado’s top pro teams have made the playoffs an astounding 55 percent of the time and brought home eight league championships. That’s success, no matter how you count it. Here’s how the numbers add up:

PLAYOFF SUCCESS SINCE 2000