Colorado Avalanche
RAPID REACTION: The One Reason Why The Avalanche Lost
No team can overcome a .696 save percentage in the playoffs. The Colorado Avalanche tried their best, but you can’t overcome goaltending that is that bad.
Yes, the Avalanche made mistakes. Every team makes mistakes, especially in the playoffs when you’re playing a very good team. You can’t be punished for every single mistake you make, though. On Sunday night, in game one, when his team put played really well in a tough environment and scored six goals against the best goaltender in the world, Alexandar Georgiev did the one thing he simply can’t do.
He lost his team the game.
That’s really all there is to it. The Avalanche were very clearly the better team in game one. At even strength, the numbers are pretty staggering. They out-attempted the Jets 73-37. They outshot them 39-19. Scoring chances were 28-16, and the high-danger chances were 10-7, all in favor of the road team. That was the loudest building I’ve ever been in, and the Avalanche did everything right to quiet them early in the game.
None of it mattered. Every mistake ended up in the back of their net. Our angle from the press box had a great look at Georgiev in the first and third periods, and on the first goal, he made himself small. Really small. Yes, there was a screen, but when you’re only covering 50% of the net, you’re not giving yourself a great chance to make a save.
None of the players threw him under the bus after the game, and I didn’t expect them to, but you can tell they’re losing confidence in him. How could they not? I don’t believe the TV cameras caught it, but after the fourth goal, Devon Toews started to skate away, then turned around and gave Georgiev a look for about half a second. I don’t know if he said anything, but that felt like a defenseman looking back at his goaltender and thinking, “can you just make one big save for us?”
At that point, it was four goals on just 10 shots. It only barely got better from there.
Everyone knew Georgiev was going to play the entire game no matter how bad it got. Even Georgiev admitted after the game that he knew. Justus Annunen missed morning skate with an illness, and wasn’t well enough to dress. That left Arvid Holm, with all of 0 NHL games under his belt, to back up Georgiev. They weren’t going to put him in the net no matter how bad it got.
And it got bad.
The fans in Winnipeg, who were incredible, had the chants going in the third period.
“Pull Your Goalie.”
“Geor-giev.”
Georgiev is not an easy name to chant, but they nailed it. I don’t think it’s going to get any better in game two. As soon as that first goal went in, Winnipeg just started chucking pucks at Georgiev. Wouldn’t you?
And yet, the Avalanche still only gave up 23 shots on goal. They played well enough to win this game, and I don’t know if anyone can question that.
They didn’t, and there’s only one reason why. Is he in net on Tuesday night?
If Annunen is healthy, I’m not sure he should be.
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I have made the comment before; Colorado will go as far as Georgiev can take them. I also said the guy loses concentration and has a severe lack of confidence and swagger a goalie needs. Colorado deserves better.
Why is assumed to be this true. Juice has a .928 save percentage and 2.25 GAA. Yes mostly sheltered minutes, but he’s never been given a chance against playoff teams except the two cleanup appearances for Georgie, one was stellar the other was mediocre. This players don’t trust AG and Bednar owes it to them to play another goalie. Juice doesn’t have to be great .910 – .915 with a 2.6 or so GAA is good enough in front of this team…especially if they play the way they did last night (minus Manson’s transgressions). Time for a permanent change for… Read more »
This nails it.
I don’t like to dunk on professional athletes who aren’t flagrant jerks, and I really wanted Georgiev to come around this year and show like he did last year, but that was some of the worst goaltending I’ve ever seen in the playoffs. I think Georgiev just lost his job.
Of all the positions in hockey, goaltending is the most mentally/psychologically sensitive position. I felt much of the scrutiny and criticism towards Georgiev was overreaction for the most part during the season – because he was, at worst, just average. Unfortunately, his current dismal performance is evidence that he let criticism get to him. How will Georgiev break this negative feedback cycle? Do we have time for him to regain his confidence/form? Or is it time to give Annunen or even Prosvetov the chance? If Annunen is not at full strength, I lean toward giving Georgiev a chance to redeem… Read more »
I did a little counting. Georgiev had 38 wins this season, but only 18 came against playoff-bound teams (vs 11 losses) while 20 wins (vs 4 losses) came against teams that did not make the cut this spring.
I would put it this way….it’s hard to have a career ending game in the nhl, no matter how bad a game it is. It’s just one game. Georgiev has had a career changing month of bad games. I think he gets the nod in game 2. And that’s the extent of his leash. If he falters again the avs are done with him.
I think he might be released no matter what the outcome. Let’s hope it’s a difficult choice.
Tomas Hertl ended Martin Biron’s career with an embarrassing thru-the-legs goal to cap off a four goal outing in the regular season. It was a 9-2 drubbing on Oct 8th 2013 in Hertl’s 3rd ever NHL game. Hertl would have seven points in three games & got a lot of media hype. This game wasn’t as spectacular, but could be equally as career ending. Jets were chanting Pull The Goalie at him. Fans & media were apoplectic. #40 was lit up in his last few regular season starts. He had to play the whole game as Holm was only there… Read more »
I was confident Georgie would pick up his game during the playoffs and that with our limited cap space we were better off bolstering our lines at the trade deadline, but I was dead wrong. Management should have listened to Rico and others and got Allen or someone else.
Could not agree more! However I stated that 4 months ago…AG is nothing more than an average back up if that at the NHL level….