DETROIT -- Bob Hartley was standing in the hallway outside the Red Wings' dressing room late Friday night, preparing to say a final adieu to members of the Detroit organization. The Red Wings were moving on; the Avalanche weren't.

The Stanley Cup champions' reign is over.

"We ran out of gas because of the efforts we put in the three rounds," the Colorado coach said of Colorado's 7-0 defeat against the Red Wings. "I think where we missed in this round was Game 1 here, where we got them when they were rusty in this building and we couldn't pull it out. That's the game where I think we missed out. But, hey, they're a great hockey team and they deserve it."

The atmosphere of inevitability that seemed to be settling in over this series after the Avalanche failed to close out the Wings in Game 6 in Denver turned out to be a toxic brown cloud for Colorado.

The Avalanche extended themselves too many times in defending the Cup, going seven games against Los Angeles and San Jose and absorbing what even for playoff hockey was an extraordinary amount of bumps, bruises and worse.

Rob Blake's hand injury affected his shooting and a leg injury affected his movement.

Alex Tanguay's leg injury limited him so severely in his return in Game 7, his decision to play probably more involved courage and a desire to be counted than common sense.

Same with Mike Keane, who was nursing what the team reported to be a rib problem and dressed for the rout.

Stephane Yelle didn't suit up after suffering a strained neck, and likely a slight concussion in Game 6.

Hartley's retroactive judgment was that if Colorado could have won Game 1 -- the Avalanche lost 5-3 in Darren McCarty's hat trick game -- and then also took Game 2 (as they did in reality, 4-3, on Chris Drury's overtime goal), the defending champions would have had a stranglehold on the series.

Others, including the melted-down Patrick Roy, were taking the more conventional position that when the Avalanche hadn't taken advantage of the chance to finish off the Red Wings in six games in Denver, that was the fatal flaw.

"I don't think we necessarily lost tonight," said Roy, who was awful and was mercifully yanked after giving up six goals on 16 shots. "Being unable to win more than one game at home was basically the difference in the series. ... I think we have to look at how we played in our own building. We were up 3-2 going into Game 6. There is going to be a lot of times we're going to think about that. Game 7s are tough to win on the road."

Drury went along with that.

"We were up 3-2, about to play in our own building, and in a good situation," Drury said. "We didn't make the best of it."

"This team played a lot of hockey over the past couple of years," said Keane, who rejoined the franchise in February. "But that's no excuse. We had a chance to close out at home, and we didn't. We came up short. There are going to be some things we look back on and be proud of, but the thing that's going to sting a little bit is that we worked hard to get back home for Game 6 in good position, but didn't close it out.

"We're disappointed because this is a team built to win the Stanley Cup. That's what the standards are."

Time and time again over the past few years, the Avalanche have displayed elite resiliency, even in seasons in which they don't win the Stanley Cup, so any evaluation of their performance Friday night has to begin with that qualifier.

But they played in Game 7 as if they knew they had no shot, as if they had blown their chance the other night in Denver, as if their luck (or pluck) had run out. Roy was terrible, and this will chip away at his image as the consummate "money-game" goaltender, but he had company in his ignominy in Game 7.

"That's obviously not the outcome we wanted," Blake said. "We got outplayed, and they threw everything at us. Our game to win was that last game at home. We came in there and obviously weren't ready, right off the hump."

Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote said, "They got two deflected goals right off the bat, and we were behind the eight ball. We were like deer in the headlights and they came on. On the first four goals, I don't think Patty had a chance on three of them, for sure. It's just too bad that it happened that way. Such a good series ended up that way, so it's disappointing."

The bottom line: The Red Wings are better, deeper, and deserved to win the series.

The Colorado injuries were issues only in that they highlighted the disparity in depth between the two rosters. The Avalanche were trying to win with a roster constructed with distinct layering in mind, for both competitive and financial reasons, but it ultimately was a big-time problem against an elite team. Colorado almost paid the price for all of that against San Jose, but survived.

Against Detroit, the Avalanche probably didn't "deserve" to be leading 3-2 after being outplayed for much of the first games, but that's part of the beauty of playoff hockey: It sometimes defies logic.

Roy's failed attempt to write a flourishing exclamation point with a wave of his glove after a save in Game 6, and his virtual handing of the game's first goal to the Red Wings, will be viewed in retrospect as the series-turning faux pas.

Maybe it was.

But maybe this series was just destined to go seven games. Especially in the wake of Peter Forsberg's return -- and his superlative play until he virtually was invisible in Colorado's final two games -- these were the two best teams in the league. The series turned out to be an intriguing, entertaining fortnight of fluctuations, involving the elite goalies sometimes looking very ordinary (or worse), but other nights looking impregnable.

If the NHL wised up and cross-seeded its Final Four, increasing the chances of getting the two best teams in the Stanley Cup finals, this matchup could have been more of a showcase opportunity for the league.

Even if the last game, and the dethroning of the champion, turned out to be an anticlimax.

Terry Frei of The Denver Post is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.