Aarif Deen
DENVER — Given the importance of Monday’s game against the Minnesota Wild, you could understand why head coach Jared Bednar would be frustrated with his team’s performance. Even if it’s Game 48 out of 82.
After all, a win in regulation could’ve pushed Colorado ahead of Minnesota in the Central Division standings. Instead, Bednar’s club sits three points back and Minnesota still also has a game in hand.
Bednar said after the game that the guys didn’t seem to have the energy. So I followed up with a simple question.
The players know it’s a big game and the energy still isn’t there. How do you coach through that?
10 Observations
1. “You get the pom poms out. That’s what you do. You’re a cheerleader, you know?” Bednar said. “What are you going to do? If we can’t, like, it’s not lack of try. It’s just, you don’t have the legs, whatever the reason is, I don’t know. You’d have to ask them, but we gotta find a way. That game reminded me of the Chicago game.”
2. Since the Chicago game, Colorado has pretty much been one-on, one-off in terms of both performance and results. Could that be the lull of the season, the busy schedule, or is there more to it?
“I don’t have the answer to that,” Bednar said. But this response came after he referenced the schedule and the lack of proper recovery time. Granted, all teams are going through this.
Such is how things go when you have to factor in a lengthy break for the 4 Nations Faceoff in the middle of the year.
3. Whether it was the sprawling pad stop on David Jiricek or the flashy glove save on Joel Eriksson Ek, Blackwood was again Colorado’s best penalty killer with those two 10-bell saves. They were both the types of saves where the opposing fans in the building began to celebrate as if it were a goal before realizing it was robbed by the goalie.
4. Loved seeing Nathan MacKinnon go out of his way to pat his goalie on the back for the late first-period save as they were coming off the ice for the intermission. MacKinnon tried his best early in the season to not publicly blame the previous goaltenders for so many of those losses where they were scoring. He, likely more than anyone, loves having Blackwood on the team.
5. Cale Makar also wanted to recognize the goalie’s play postgame. The performances he’s putting in between the pipes aren’t lost on the core of this team.
“We gotta help him out more because we’re not doing that lately,” Makar told me.
6. Parker Kelly was a close second in terms of PK effectiveness. This kid is so aggressive in cutting lanes, stopping shots before they get off, and does an excellent job of getting sticks in lanes to disrupt the cycle. This wasn’t on the PK but there was one play in particular where he was throwing his body around behind the net like it was nobody’s business. Mind you, Kelly is not a big body. But man does he play tough.
7. Too predictable on the power play. Again. The Wild were excellent with active sticks and disrupting play throughout the game. But it becomes even easier on the PP when the Avs get set up and everybody is stationary.
8. This is the type of game where it pays off to have a superstar and good goaltending. The Avs had four shots almost halfway through regulation but were only down 1-0 thanks to Blackwood’s excellence between the pipes. That was until MacKinnon took it upon himself to skate circles (literally) around the Wild before beating Marc-Andre Fleury with just over a minute remaining in the second.
If they were able to start the third the way they ended it, they could’ve gotten away with two points despite only controlling one period.
9. Makar played 30:23 on a day when it wasn’t quite clear if he would even dress. On one hand, it’s safe to say he’s feeling fine after being sore following the Dallas game. But on the other hand, you can’t imagine the coaching staff feels it’s ideal to have to play him 30+ minutes during a random mid-January game.
They need more from other guys to stop that from happening.
10. Not having Valeri Nichushkin isn’t ideal and I think the Avs play better with him. If you’ve followed me for long enough you know how I feel about the forward and his importance to the team. But I just can’t use that as a valid excuse for these recent losses.
Today alone, Minnesota was missing Kirill Kaprizov, Jared Spurgeon, and Jonas Brodin. You can’t convince me Nichushkin means more to the Avs than all three of those guys combined. Or for that matter, just Kaprizov.
With or without him, the Avalanche need to be more consistent.