Avalanche News
Avalanche Retain Jared Bednar, Fire Assistant Coach Ray Bennett Following Early Playoff Exit
The Avalanche are making a coaching change, but it’s not with Jared Bednar.
The head coach is remaining on board with full confidence from general manager Chris MacFarland and team president Joe Sakic. However, assistant coach Ray Bennett was let go by the organization on Tuesday.
The announcement was made at Tuesday afternoon’s season-ending press conference with MacFarland and Sakic
Bennett, who was hired in 2017 to join Bednar’s staff, was in charge of the power play. Colorado was ranked 14th out of 16 playoff teams on the man advantage.
When you look at how we lost, we just feel maybe a different voice should help,” Sakic said. “Our power plays have been top-10 over the last few years, but we feel the way things ended, maybe a different voice going into next year could help that.”
The Avs were 3-for-22 on the man advantage in their seven-game series against the Dallas Stars, and Nathan MacKinnon had all three of those goals. In a game of inches, every opportunity matters.
“But ultimately, execution, it comes from the players. Your top players,” Sakic said. “We have some of the top players in the world on our team. They’re the ones out there that need to execute. So it just ran dry at the wrong time. It’s tough to make a change. You don’t like to do that, but we feel moving forward, we’re hoping that a change of voice might help our power play going into next year.”
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Avalanche Retain Jared Bednar, Fire Assistant Coach Ray Bennett Following Early Playoff Exit
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Bednar better count his blessings and hope for a hot start to the season, because it’s safe to say his seat is boiling at the moment. I also wonder if Carle re-upping with DU had anything to do with it.
It had everything to do with it.
I’m making over $13k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is where I started
.
HERE—————⊃⫸ https://tinyurl.com/4e9eczre
I was kind of surprised Carle didn’t wait a bit to extend with DU. He has accomplished everything there and would be in line for a massive raise with the Avs if they came calling. Plus staying in Denver would be a perfect fit.
If the NHL jump doesn’t work out, which it rarely does, his stock drops a ton. I am very happy for him, and DU. If he leaves that program could suffer. Montgomery is maybe the only successful college to NHL jump that has worked out. Hastily not only failed in NHL, ND hasn’t been the same since.
So, Avs ownership + the front office is content to only make a bare minimum directional change after yet ANOTHER embarrassing, underwhelming series performance against a shorthanded Dallas club that was missing its top D-man + top scoring forward, huh? Uhhhhh…ok! Anyone wanna wager that the Avs get bounced again in the 1st round of the playoffs next season? This organization is certainly bound and determined to run itself into the ditch; and they deserve every last bit of the scorn & mocking laughter being aimed at them by the hockey world. What a joke. Hell, let’s just rename this… Read more »
That’s basically what i’m hearing out of it. 😑
I couldn’t hold my tongue until October. Wow!!! You all have laid all your opinions out there, so rehashing what is wrong with this team is pointless. I hope they trade Mack and Makar for a total of about 20 picks plus another 20 prospects. It is obviously going to take a bunch of years for Upper Management to see the real issues, so we should stock up on future assets now. This way our future GM and Coach may have something to work with. At this point I think we will miss the playoffs for the rest of M… Read more »
Heh, back then they did a rebuild for the rebuild…that shite was brutal mate. As much as i hate to say it i wonder a bit if they shouldn’t just kick start the rebuild sooner, but hopefully wiser than the last time.
I watched the entire PC. Seems like CMac and Joe are a bit detached from reality on some of these player evaluations and where this team is after the trades made in the last 4 months. Yes the Avs played very good 5v5 hockey in this series, went a league best 22-10-2 after trading Moose, but unless they have more cap flexibility than it appears and some of these guys play much better than they did in the post season, not sure how they are so rosy on the outlook with minimal changes. Bennett was a given, no way he… Read more »
I love the comment about how great Brock Nelson is even though he scored zero goals in the series. But he played great defense and could have scored 5 in the next round. Yeah right.
Ding-ding-ding-ding!
Yes. That was CMac trying to put a positive spin on giving up a ton of assets for a rental, who didn’t seem to fit or gel. And him alluding to his defensive play..Jesus. He’s a 2C who you acquired to help give you GOALS. Especially since you traded your best pure goal scorer.
Notice he completely evaded answering the question regarding if they would try to sign Nelson & if there is mutual interest.
The Av’s will always be in a state of Mediocrity as long as the fans except it..Oh look, the Nuggets fired both gm and coach a week before the playoffs… oh look, they won a gm 7 and advanced…. Imagine that..
Aarif Deen gambled on his FIRE C-MAC article and should be fired immediately!!
I’ve already cancelled membership, paid through August, so you’ll have to black/ban me to quiet me.
you’ve turned this into vitriol, you third string moron…go on look at the comments asshat
yeesh
Not taking a side here, but I would say this fan base is 50/50 on keeping Bednar and CMac or moving in a different direction. Honestly…there are solid arguments either way. Aarif feels like it’s time for a change…given winning 1 series in the last 3 playoffs with arguably some of the best talent in the NHL, that’s not exactly a fringe take. Provided the discussion is reasonable why would you leave.
With you Robert. I did the same. I won’t be here as long as you will be but perhaps that is good since this site has taken a huge downturn lately. Very hard to read with a third of the comments coming from the genius Jeremy. Aarif really stepped over the line with his calling for CMAC’s head. Very sad, Rants comes out looking like the good guy when his refusal to negotiate his salary during the season started this entire fiasco and put the Av’s in a very bad position. I don’t think his contract will wear well over… Read more »
I stepped over the line for presenting an argument respectfully? Got it.
CMac, Drouin, Nelson, Necas, Kiviranta, Wood, Malinski, Girard, and any dudes on the Ice Patrol all need to go.
Welp..if you don’t agree with myself, Aarif or whomever. Here’s a novel idea. Present a cogent thoughtful counter argument. And don’t be personally offended by people who don’t just cheerleader & hold up pom poms for everything Avs related. It’s interesting you’ll miss two of the most toxic least thoughtful people who regularly comment on here in Rico & DK. Rico especially, who gets salty & butthurt if people question anything he says & don’t just reply with “well said Rico”. I got called numerous names, attacked personally & told how ridiculous I was for hating the Rantanen trade. Yet… Read more »
No he didn’t mate. Aarif is spot on and has a right to opinion regardless.
Aarif wrote his opinion. I don’t agree with every editorial I read and since everyone forms their own opinions it seems reasonable that opinion pieces can be controversial. This said, it’s not a topic that’s particularly shocking since many in the fan base are wondering the same. Using your term, you’re the one who’s actually turned this into vitriol with a 4th grade tantrum and name calling…
Thank you.
Go off my man. I couldn’t care less if you canceled. If you feel the need to be disrespectful because I have an opninion you don’t agree with, then, quite frankly, I don’t care for you.
Totally unnecessary. Aarif is a hard working journalist who deserves respect. His “opinions “ make this site worth reading. He’s not out there kissing ass. I like the lack of hype here. As a fellow journalist I say “keep on keepin on.”
I appreciate you, Peggy.
Because he dare have an actually opinion? I don’t always agree with his takes. But at least he has something to say.
If you just want a rose colored view of the Avs. And a bunch of dorks who are going to just simp for Avs management & carry water for them. You’ve got plenty of options for that.
* DNVR (Eric Lacroix is an abortion of a podcaster)
* Guerilla sports (Montano & Angley don’t have two brain cells to rub together)
* Altitude radio (enough said)
And there’s a few others too.
Yup, you’re right about looking at the comments. You’ll see that most commenters feel the front office and/or coaching staff needed more shaking up than just letting Ray Bennett go. Spare us the goalie room makeover and try naming another meaningful move made in the last 3 years with CMac sitting in the big chair
Joe Sakic is no longer the man for the job. He agreed that MacFarland would not fire Bednar and was unable to fire MacFarland himself. Joe Sakic has softened up a lot since then. He seems to have forgotten the time when Pierre Lacroix was his GM. When we say that the Avalanche complain in mediocrity, that’s what it is.
I hope the owner took notes !!!
So it’s essentially the status quo minus a new PP guru moving forward. Let’s look at the rest of the facts: We still have a bunch of talent signed through next year. They will put a good team on the ice, we just don’t know how good they’ll be until they find a 2C. But we also are in a tough division and the Blues and Wild won’t be far behind, especially since Minnesota no longer has $14 million in dead money. No 1st, 2nd or 3rd round picks this year or next. Only a 4th and 7th this year.… Read more »
Colton is only one I’m on fence about.
Agreed. His versatility up and down the lineup is useful but he’s inconsistent, which is a bad trait at $4 million/year. I think dealing Wood is the first step. Not enough offense for a 3rd liner and we have a solid 4th line in Kelly – Drury – LOC.
I get the frustration with Bednar but given the Avs success at 5-on-5 it doesn’t make sense to bring in a new coach unless there is a clear upgrade available. Boston fired Monty and went nowhere with Sacco, Blues saw a clear opportunity to upgrade and went on a solid run.
My takeaways from the presser-
1) There’s more to the Mikko than Mikko admitted and the press knew/knows
2) Bedsy shouldn’t have been fired and it’s apparent he has the full backing of the people in charge
3) A coach paid the price for the players’ lack of execution.
It puts an exclamation mark on this f..k organization. I’m going to do like Rantanen and move to Dallas. Now I understand better why Rantanen didn’t want to re-sign with this filthy organization.
I always wondered why the Avs PP, during the last 3 or so years never reached the dominance level that Edmonton’s PP reached during that same span. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t have, period.
Injuries played a big factor in that, but still.
I mean if they just were 20% better on the pp this series was prob a sweep for us. Things would be much different today just with that.
I mean the Avs have had a top 10 power play year over year for the last half decade. I’m not saying Ray Bennett doesn’t have to own the struggles of the PP, since he runs the unit.
But it’s quite clear this is more about optics & he’s being scapegoated a bit.
Yeah, he’s been asst coach since 2017 and we’ve had good PP in that tenure. I guess it’s about being able to make it work with what you got.
Mac said he was happy when he got a righty on PP though.
Jeebus…that’s all?? 😳😬
What the hell has MacFarland accomplished at this level? Have no faith in the loser. None. Zero.
I thought it was pretty telling (which Aarif alluded to). That Sakic was present. Obviously Macfarland is his hand picked predecessor & he knows lots in the media & fanbase are out for blood. So him being there to deflect criticism away from CMac was a very calculated move. Since we’ve seen CMac conduct every presser sans Sakic since becoming GM with the exception of the one last year with Landy. In which Landeskog was really only present to quell the retirement rumors. As a boss & a man I think Sakic deserves lots of praise for doing that. I… Read more »