Terry Frei
Contrary to a common narrative often advanced around here, especially of late, Pavel Francouz — who turns 32 on Friday — didn’t come out of nowhere.
The Avalanche goaltender played professionally for eight seasons in Europe, including in his Czech Republic homeland and in the Kontinental Hockey League with Russia’s Tractor Chelyabinsk, before the Avalanche signed him as a free agent in 2018.
He had been the winning goaltender for the Czech Republic in games in the IIHF World Championships and in the Olympics, and in playoff games in the European leagues.
After his 24-save shutout of the Oilers in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals Thursday night, he’s 4-0 in the 2022 playoffs for the Avalanche with a 2.48 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage. His NHL career playoff record is 6-4.
I asked him how this — with emphasis on his showing against the Oilers — compares to his wins in international and European playoff competition.
“The NHL is the top level on this planet, for sure,” he said. “Especially to see all the talent on both sides, it’s the highest possible level, so it’s tough to compare.”
The side drama to this one was compelling, with Francouz called on to make the start in the wake of Darcy Kuemper’s eye and vision issue that led to his exit in the second period of Game 1.
The Avalanche Wednesday still were labeling that an upper-body injury.
Jared Bednar at least went from declining in the morning to say anything more than that Kuemper was unavailable, to confirming after the game that the veteran goaltender was considered day to day.
So a major injury, this isn’t. We at least learned that much on Thursday.
But now, that might be academic.
Francouz has to be and will be the starter for the foreseeable future.
He didn’t have to be, and wasn’t, heroically and head-shaking larcenous in Game 2. But these are the Oilers and after the wildly entertaining, 14-goal Game 1, competent prime-time goaltending was a change. Three of the Francouz saves were on Leon Draisaitl, two on Connor McDavid.
So in the final seconds, Francouz heard the crowd chanting “Frankie,” moments before his teammates mobbed and congratulated him.
“It’s a special feeling for sure,” Francouz said. “It’s tough to describe. It was a special night for sure. I think was an overall team effort tonight. It was better when they were shouting, ‘Go, Avs, Go!’ or ‘Let’s go Avs!’”
Francouz said he was told Wednesday he would be the Game 2 starter. By then, it didn’t take Sherlock Holmes (the detective, not the hockey-oriented hangout/bar in Edmonton) to deduce that, but it was confirmation.
“I was kind of thinking that I was going to play after the other game,” he said. “But they told me I was going to to start (Wednesday) afternoon. For sure, you were a little nervous and you had it in the back of your mind that it’s a really important game. But what helped me was the way our team played tonight. From the first seconds, I knew they would help me a lot. That made me more calm and I could just focus on my play.”
His teammates noticed.
“He was great,” said Mikko Rantanen, who had a goal and assist. “He didn’t play a lot at the end of the year and especially in the playoffs and to jump in like that and make some key saves when it was 0-0 and when we had a couple-goal lead there, that tells you how good of a goalie he is.”
Josh Manson had the Avalanche’s second goal against the team his father, Dave, serves as an assistant coach. He noted the Avs hadn’t repeated the goal-causing mistakes they made in Game 1 but added: “I think obviously Frankie played well tonight. He shut the door when we needed him to and then we tightened up defensively a little bit.”
Bednar labeled Francouz’s play “great. He looked poised, calm, really confident.”
So what now?
Bednar remained non-committal. Asked what the choice would be if Kuemper was cleared to play, he repeated his standard playoff reply: “We’ll see.” In this instance, though, he added, “We’ll evaluate the game and talk to Darcy and Frankie, then we’ll make our decision.”
It should be an easy one.
Given the ups and downs of the goaltending craft, the situation could change when the series resumes in Alberta. But for now, the most telling part of the drama is that Kuemper has lost the faith of his teammates — and not only because of injury — and they have more trust in Francouz.
It’s weird, isn’t it?
This team is 10-2 in the playoffs and is two wins away from reaching the Stanley Cup Finals. But the pair of losses to St. Louis both generated Widespread Panic.
And it has a goaltending controversy.
Terry Frei ([email protected], @tfrei) is a Denver-based author and journalist. He has been named a state’s sportswriter of the year seven times in peer voting — four times in Colorado and three times in Oregon. His seven books include the novels “Olympic Affair” and “The Witch’s Season.” Among his five non-fiction works are “Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming,” “Third Down and a War to Go,” “March 1939: Before the Madness,” and “’77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age.” He also collaborated with Adrian Dater on “Save By Roy,” was a long-time vice president of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and has covered the hockey Rockies, Avalanche and the NHL at-large. His website is www.terryfrei.com and his bio is available at www.terryfrei.com/bio.html
His Colorado Hockey Now column archive can be accessed here