Aarif Deen
The Colorado Avalanche aren’t going to take the Vegas Golden Knights lightly. That’s not something they’ve ever really done against a playoff opponent. And it can’t start now.
This isn’t the same Vegas team that won only 39 games in the regular season.
This isn’t the same team that couldn’t get a point per game from Mitch Marner in the regular season. It’s not the same team that struggled down the middle of the ice because of a long-term injury to William Karlsson and the lack of a true 4C before the trade deadline.
It’s not the same team that struggled to finds its identity, that couldn’t take control of a weak division, and probably started to tune out its head coach.
It’s not the team that had issues with consistency between the pipes. It’s not the team that couldn’t get much depth scoring.
The Golden Knights are 15-4-1 in their last 20 games, dating back to the regular season. It’s the same record as the Avalanche’s last 20. Both teams have given up an identical 47 goals against in that stretch. The Avs have 73 goals — Vegas has 77.
“You can’t look at our record for the year and then someone else’s record and go, oh yeah, they should just walk all over them,” Bednar sad. “Because the last 30-40 games of the season, you might have had the exact same record, so that’s who you are for the last four months, and that’s who Vegas is.”
Marner leads the post season with a whopping 18 points in 12 games. Brett Howden has eight goals on just 20 shots, providing a level of depth scoring that the team didn’t have. Carter Hart has solidified the goaltending position that was inconsistent for six months. Perhaps the most important part: William Karlsson is healthy. And they have Nic Dowd to round out a center core that also includes Jack Eichel and Tomas Hertl.
“It’s a really good team. They’re a super deep forward group. Half their teams won a Stanley Cup right after our guys won it,” Bednar said. “They’re a stingy defensive team, and they have lots of firepower. So we have to pick them apart and figure out the best way to try and create offense against them, and how to defend them.”
Leading the charge behind the bench now is John Tortorella. He took over for Bruce Cassidy at the start of this 20-game stretch. Vegas went 7-0-1 the rest of the way in the regular season to lock up the No. 1 seed on their side of the Western Conference bracket.
They defeated the Utah Mammoth and the Anaheim Ducks in Round 2, both in six games.
“The strength of his coaching is being able to communicate what he needs out of every individual player and every player on his roster and groups on his roster to get the most out of them,” Bednar said of Tortorella. “Them understanding their role, and then pushing them to move out of their comfort zone. That’s what he does.”
This is simply not a team Colorado can take lightly.
“My focus is the same as it is going into any series, Bednar said. “It’s just different pieces moving around the table. We’re not looking past this team.”
The Golden Knights have the same level of experience the Avs have. They’re both rosters loaded with Stanley Cup champions, or guys who have played for one.
“You’re not gonna be able to rattle them. They’re very well defined in the structure of their game,” Bednar said.
Part of that experience is knowing when it’s time to focus on what’s ahead. Celebrating an epic Game 5 comeback against the Minnesota Wild can only last for so long.
This team knows that.
“I was hearing that out of their mouths 15 minutes after that game in the lunchroom. Our goal wasn’t to just win that round,” Bednar said. “We have higher aspirations, and yeah, they celebrated for a little bit. I’m sure they enjoyed the time off that they earned, but deep down, 15 minutes after that game, guys are sitting in the locker room talking about the game that was going to happen the next night between Vegas and Anaheim, and what it was going to look like, and all the guys are already talking about Vegas today. Their focus is already shifting into the right place.”