Avalanche Room: Georgiev Credits Team, Bednar Talks Buy-In

The Colorado Avalanche got a great performance from their goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, but it seems like the team in front of him has really started to buy-in and commit to a full 60 minute effort. He’s noticed, and Jared Bednar says this has been building for a while.

I also asked Bednar about how important a guy like Caleb Jones is to have, someone who understands their role in the organization and does what is asked of him. His answer was very interesting.

Take a look at what Georgiev and Ross Colton had to say, and read Bednar’s thoughts after a dominant 3-0 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights.

Alexandar Georgiev

Georgiev on whether these games against top teams are looked at any differently:

“You know you’re playing against a good opponent, but at the same time, I feel like we’re focused on us, trying to build our game, and playing the right way.”

Ross Colton

Bednar on how his Avalanche squad played:

“I liked it too. I just think that the last couple of games our commitment to check and play the right way has been really good. The difference in the game, it looked like both teams were a little bit more tired. it didn’t have the pace, physicality, like that Boston game was intense. Both teams looked like they were well rested and ready to go. This one had the same level of detail, and we did a great job on both sides of it. It just didn’t have the get up and go from both teams.”

Bednar on what the team has been building towards:

“It’s not just two games. I know what you guys do is, we give up all these scoring chances over a 10 game stretch, which was game 20-30. And we didn’t give them up from 30-40. We just didn’t. It’s not my analytics, it’s the league’s analytics. Our checking commitment has been good for a while, and now we’re starting to see it. That was just really consistent, really good. But there’s a lag in, when we’re playing good, it gets talked about, maybe when we’re already starting to play poorly, and there’s a lag in when we’re checking good, that it just is magically happening now, but it’s been happening since game 30.”

Bednar on Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon’s level of play right now:

“It’s high. It’s magnified for me as a coach because we need him more now. Missing a few guys out of the lineup, the depth of our forward group, and for him to just be able to bring it every single night, it’s been impressive. His game’s always at a high level. Now, it’ just every game.”

Bednar on if people take MacKinnon’s dominance for granted:

“Yeah, I think it’s easy to do. Expectations are so high. I notice, listening to sports radio, and everything else. Jokic didn’t have a great game last night. Well, he’s been the best player in the league for 3-4+ years. And he’s doing it every night in a different way. If he doesn’t have his legs, he passes it off and gets 15 assists or whatever it is, but it doesn’t make it any less special. It’s the same for Nate. He has a bad game, and everyone’s like, oh Nate didn’t do it tonight. Well, he just did it 40 games in a row. What do you want him to do? Guys are going to run out of legs every once in a while.”

Bednar on Georgiev’s game and the confidence it gives the Avalanche:

“Perfect game for me, because we did a nice job on the checking. You’re never gonna go through the game with zero scoring chances against. Against good teams, they’re going to earn a couple ‘Grade-A’ chances. We held those numbers down, but the ones that stand out for me. The one hits the post right down in the second period. He battled the first period to find all these loose pucks at the net front when our ‘D’ and low forwards are battling. He just stayed on it, smothered a bunch. I loved that out of his first period. The penalty kill that they slid across the crease, I think it was Stone, and he got his pad on it. That was a huge save at a key time. That’s exactly how I want our team to be. I don’t want us giving up a lot of chances, and when we have a big breakdown, we need our goalie to make save.”

Bednar on the value of a player like Caleb Jones, who understands his role, the Avalanche organization:

“Everyone has to be like that. Understand their role and then play to their best ability when the time comes. Whether that’s every fifth game, every 10th game, five minutes at night, or 25 a night, right? And Jonesy’s a great teammate, and you have to, when you’re out for stretches period of time, you really have to dig in and do extra work, even though sometimes you’re kind of down in the dumps because you’re not playing or frustrated. And that’s what he’s been doing. He’s a hard worker. He played really well tonight, and and so did Sam (Malinski). We got guys coming up, buying into their roles. Polin, again, was pretty good within the role that we’re giving him and the ice time we’re giving him. I think it’s really important. Successful teams have that. If you don’t have it, then you’re likely not one of the top successful teams.”