Jared Bednar: Avs victim of “self-inflicted wounds”

Jared Bednar usually doesn’t spare the rod, at least when it comes to criticizing his team’s work ethic. If it’s not there, he says it. And so, he said it after Sunday’s miserable 4-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, the team’s fourth straight overall. With one week to go in the regular season, this does not sound like a coach of a Western Conference-leading team.

“Those are self-inflicted wounds. There are multiple other options besides turning it over into the middle of the ice,” Bednar said.  “We worked in spurts but not like you have to work, like the game requires, like the opponent requires. Details weren’t great and execution was poor.”

As road trips go, this one was equivalent to the Griswolds’ family vacation. 

“I just don’t think the effort was there,” said J.T. Compher, “Guys are trying but overall we are much better than that as a group. We know that’s not good enough.”

The common theme seems to be slow starts, lack of energy and no one “willing” this team out of the slump. The Avs were outshot 44 – 31 and never really had sustained pressure in the game. Costly turnovers were another key factor as well, especially on their own power play. Winnipeg had, by far, more scoring chances than the Avs when Colorado was on the PP.

Let’s hope being back home for a few days will bring better results, on and off the ice. Avs didn’t practice Monday, so health updates will have to wait ’til Tuesday. The Avs can’t just sit around and wait for Superman(men) to come and rescue them. The guys still on hand need to be part of the solution too. 

• Josh Manson, Bednar said, couldn’t play in the third period because his elbow “locked up” on him. He had the problem fixed with three minutes to go and could have come back in, but the game was over by then. Bednar said Manson has had the issue before.
• Mikko Rantanen missed a third straight game with a non-Covid illness. He flew back to Denver on Saturday.