Deen’s Daily: Bednar Sticks Up For Georgiev; Edmonton Stumbles Again

Jared Bednar made sure to stick up for his starting goaltender during his postgame media press conference on Saturday.

Instead of nitpicking Alexandar Georgiev’s game, Colorado’s head coach went out of his way to try and pump the goalie up.

“I get that there’s a level of frustration, but he’s our guy, he’s our starter. And I have full faith that he has the ability, the talent, and the work ethic to bounce back and win us hockey games,” Bednar said. “It’s a mental game for him right now. So we’ll regroup and then we have other areas that we have to get better at.”

I’m sure most are feeling like the Avs need to explore the market. But the reality is, there isn’t a trade option available in October. Nor do I think the team is at that point. The waiver claim for Kaapo Kahkonen gives them another option and there’s still Justus Annunen, granted he’s struggled each time he entered the game in relief.

Whatever it is the team decides to do, they need to figure it out quickly. October was supposed to be a tough month because of the firepower missing from the forward group. But here we are after two games, Colorado has somehow scored eight goals, and yet it still doesn’t have a point in the standings to show for it because of the abysmal goaltending it’s gotten from both guys.

Colorado Hockey Now

You can catch my full game recap from the 6-4 loss to Columbus here. And while we’re at it, another edition of Good & Bad. It’s not quite as easy to predict the ‘good’ from this game compared to opening night. But I think you just might guess the ‘bad’ again.

Around The NHL

Edmonton: The Oilers have stumbled out of the gate arguably worse than the Avalanche. After a brutal 6-0 shutout loss to the Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton suffered a 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks despite outshooting them 38-20. Not only is their goaltending struggling big time, but their offense can’t seem to generate much of anything. Colorado is scoring despite missing all the offensive firepower. The Oilers on the other hand spent the entire offseason adding offensive pieces and only have two goals to show for it through two games.

It’s worth noting, I think both teams bounce back. But it’s not a great start for either of Connor McDavid or Nathan MacKinnon’s clubs.

Detroit Hockey Now: How about this for a bounceback from a tough loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins? Thanks to a perfect game from Cam Talbot in his Red Wings debut, Detroit shut out the loaded Nashville Predators offense 3-0. Talbot made 42 saves.

NYI Hockey Now: Patrick Roy and the New York Islanders visit the Avalanche on Monday. But first, they made a stop in Dallas and got shut out 3-0 by Jake Oettinger and the Stars. They won’t face quite the same quality of goaltending against the Avs but it’ll be interesting to see which of the two clubs bounce back in Roy’s return to Denver.

San Jose Hockey Now: Macklin Celebrini played injured? It would appear so. Tough blow for the Sharks. It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the No. 1 overall pick on the injury front. San Jose lost 2-0 to Anaheim on Saturday without their prized center.