Avalanche Room: Bednar Discusses Trades, Foudy On First

A hectic day turned into an absolute beat down of the Detroit Red Wings by the Colorado Avalanche.

A Cale Makar hat trick led the way for the Avalanche, but this game wasn’t particularly close once Colorado started to defend the front of their net a little bit. Colorado finished the game with 54 shots on net, and Detroit ended the night with 45 shot attempts. That should tell you how tight this game was.

Makar discussed his hat trick, as well as the moves made earlier in the day, while Jean-Luc Foudy talked about what a goal like that meant after what he’s had to deal with the past year.

Meanwhile, Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar talked about the moves that saw Ryan Johansen and Bowen Byram leave, and what he is excited about with Sean Walker and Casey Mittelstadt.

Cale Makar

Jean-Luc Foudy

Foudy on scoring his first NHL goal after fighting through injuries the last year:

“I’m just excited, honestly, to be playing hockey again. When you go through a long rehab like that, sometimes it can get lonely with the team going on the road and stuff like that. It’s just fun to be playing hockey, and to get the goal is even better.”

Bednar on the Avalanche moves of the day and reflecting on the day:

“It’s always difficult when you lose a guy and you know how much they care for what’s going on here, and they’ve been a part of it. It was a tough day when we decided to trade (MacDermid). Heart and soul, team guy. Again with Bo and Jo too. At the end of the day, we take from a strength of our team and we add in a spot where we have a big weakness, right? Down the middle of the ice, and to get a caliber player like Mittelstadt is a big move. It just sucks because you got to give up something to get something, and it happened to be Bo. I got a soft spot for all those guys, especially the guys that were with us prior to 2022, grinding, then having success in 2022 and been with us since. He’s a huge part of it.”

Bednar on the game itself:

“I thought the guys played great tonight. We definitely got better as the game went on. I loved our jump and our offensive game the whole night, but we had a couple big breakdowns in the first period, and it cost us. Then we got some big saves on a couple of them too. The offensive game never wavered tonight.”

Bednar on Walker and Mittelstadt:

“I’ve watched them both. Walker, with Bo gone, we have a hole on defense that we want to fill. Walker, great skater. Great skater. Good puck mover, likes to get up and go into the rush, but he’s a solid defender. Good penalty killer as well. Skating’s the strength of his game, no question, which kind of fits our mold for our guys, so he should be able to step in and be a nice fit for us.”

“And Mittelstadt, he’s got, I don’t want to say elite, but he’s got fantastic hands and feet and he thinks the game. Offensive player. Distributor of the puck. Can shoot, can skate, doesn’t like to give the puck away, likes to play with it, which is what we want to do. He’s not a dump and chase guy, he’s not a big physical guy. His hockey sense and the way he thinks the game and can play in offensive situations is high-end. I’d say there’s probably quite a few similarities to Drouin in his game.”

Bednar on coaching his 600th NHL game with the Avalanche:

“I’m grateful for being here every day. To be able to coach in the NHL, play in the NHL, it’s a privilege. I thin you have to be grateful for it.”

Bednar on his confidence level in the Avalanche right now:

“It’s high. We just filled a big need and filled in the spot that we lost. I think we’re a better team, should be a better team moving forward.”

Bednar on when the new players will arrive:

“Walker’s going to land tonight, Mittelstadt’s going to land tomorrow morning.”

On Jean-Luc Foudy getting his first goal after battling injuries:

“Love it. Love it. He’s a player, you know his history, his game has been going like that (points up). He’s had some injury troubles beside the big one that put him out for half the season or almost the whole season, I guess. And he’s worked his way back, he’s finally feeling healthy. But he played some really good games for us last year. I thought his game built into a spot where we saw him as a usable player. I think he still has a high ceiling. He’s just scratching the surface, but he can skate, he’s tenacious, he’s got some skill, he’s not intimidated by anybody. And that’s the type of goal I love to see him score for his first one. It’s a hard working goal, going to the net, staying on the puck.”