Avalanche Locker Room: Byram on Overtime Penalty, Bednar Praises His ‘Scrappy’ Team

The Colorado Avalanche lost in overtime to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night, and the big moment came when Bowen Byram and Connor McDavid got tangled up in the neutral zone in the extra period.

Byram admitted he got beat up the ice, but also didn’t like McDavid’s stick-work.

Meanwhile, head coach Jared Bednar talked about how proud he is of his group, a group that has had to deal with a lot of adversity this season with injuries.

Take a look at what Bowen Byram had to say after the game, and read what Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said after the 2-1 loss that clinched home-ice in round one.

Bednar on how the Avalanche played:

I liked our game. I thought we were engaged right away, played hard. A pretty tight checking game, for the most part. I didn’t think we created enough to kind of take control of the game. I thought we did a good job on the checking side of it. It was a pretty good hockey game. We get a chance, a powerplay late in the game, that was a really nice powerplay. I liked a couple of the looks that we got. We had another chance in overtime, and we hesitated a little bit on that reload, and you can’t hesitate on a guy like McDavid with his speed. He gets the chance, and their powerplay is lethal, and you put them 4-on-3, it’s even more room to work with those guys. But I thought it was a good hockey game.

Bednar on the four-minute penalty kill in the second period:

Big kill. Those guys were dialed in. Good meeting today. There’s obviously adjustments to make on your penalty kill from what you normally do when you face a team that’s got Draisaitl, who is a big threat at passing, and Hyman at the net, and McDavid coming downhill all the time. There’s a lot of weapons there. So you’re trying to dictate where they go with it, take away some of the things they like to do. They did a nice job. And then Georgiev, obviously, he had a really good night again, gives us a chance to win every night.

Bednar on playing a playoff-style game this late in the year:

Doesn’t hurt. It’s another test for your team and how you approach things. This team is scrappy, you know? They are. They’re a resilient group. They grind, they work, they find a different way to win every night. They’re a competitive group. They’ve got lots of heart. That’s a good way to describe this team. They’ve gone through their fair share of adversity at this point, and we’re still hanging around, trying to wrap up the division. I thought tonight was no different. We didn’t get the result we wanted, but it’s a big point. We move on, try to win the next two.

Bednar on the physicality of guys like Girard and Byram on the night:

Girard played physical tonight, hard tonight. You’re playing against Hyman and McDavid all night, and they’re hanging onto pucks, and trying to drive him to the net low. And for an undersized guy, he was physical, played hard. I thought EJ was the same on the back-end, Bo (as well). I mean, you have to have it. It’s what the game requires at this time of year. You can’t go out and play light. You don’t have to run people through the glass every shift, but you’ve got to work to check the puck back and there’s a physicality that has to be apart of that, and that grit.