Avalanche Takeaways: Shutout Loss, Bednar Tired of Excuses (+)

As the Colorado Avalanche played the Boston Bruins for the second time in less than a week, it was a battle of an AHL team against an NHL team.

The Avalanche came into tonight with eight Colorado Eagles in the lineup. Five out of the top-six have been sidelined with injuries and the earliest we can expect one back could be sometime this week with Val Nichushkin. The Avalanche were able to hold on for the most part for the first period, not allowing any goals. The second period is where the shutout ended. The Bruins were able to score two goals in the second and the third period to win the game 4-0.

My Takeaways:

• Alexandar Georgiev looked good at times, not so good in others. He was making it from post to post pretty quickly, but his glove hand seemed off.
• Failure to clear the defensive zone by Ben Meyers and a slow backcheck to close the back door that led to the second goal. Sam Girard didn’t shine on the play either.
• Cal Burke was playing a fast and aggressive game. He did not change his game at all from the Eagles to the Avalanche.
• The penalty kill was on point, getting in the passing lanes and keeping their sticks down. They were also getting in front of shots only allowing only a few shots during the first penalty kill.
• The Avalanche were lacking on the north-south game. It was understandable given how many Eagles were in the lineup. They were not pushing the puck into the offensive zone. The absence of Nathan MacKinnon was showing right here.
• Burke is a player that can pressure a skater from the blue line on down, this may help him stay with the Avalanche for the moment.

Interviews

We were able to interview Cal Burke after his first NHL game with the Avalanche tonight. “This is such a great rink and great fans. They’re awesome. It was an honor,” Cal said about playing in Ball Arena.

“It definitely helps that a lot of us came from the Eagles. They teach us well down there, we have that built in chemistry.  We all have that similar lingo so that helps,

“I was out there working as hard as I can. I was a little tense and gripping my stick a little tight. I just wanted to go out and put in maximum effort,” Burke told me about playing his first shift.

Burke even caught the eye of coach Bednar as he said that “he played hard and looked like a confident player. He skated with the puck. Dialed in right from the get go.”

Then, Bednar said this:

“Listen, if you’re quitting, you shouldn’t be in this league. It’s a privilege to be in this league, OK? It’s not always going to be easy, it’s a hard game. Moral victories, we are going to take it and we are going to teach it. I am going to expect that this group stays the exact same moving forward for one game, two games, five games. I am going to expect them to take from this game and learn from this game,” Bednar said.

Asked if the team should take moral victories out of nights like tonight, Bednar said:

“Yeah we’re not gonna do that. If we’re rolling over because it’s too difficult, or we’re losing games, then we need new players. We’ll have to find other guys. We better be playing hard every single night regardless of what we think the outcome is gonna be, regardless if we’re winning or losing. I mean that’s the culture we’ve built here, we’re gonna continue that regardless. And if guys quit and don’t play hard, then we’ll find other players. It’s that simple.”

Translation: I think Bednar was unhappy with some of the effort shown by some guys, especially after it was 2-0. The team didn’t seem to really compete too hard in the third period.

I think Bednar is getting tired of too much participation trophy talk and wants to see more heart and snarl out of this group – whoever is on the roster.

Cal Burke’s full interview is below!