Adrian Dater
EDMONTON, ALBERTA – I remember it well, and if you’ve been a serious Avs for more than two years now, you should remember it well too. The news in Nashville was: Andrew Hammond, who had only played one game in nearly two seasons, would be the starting goalie for Game 5 in at Bridgestone Arena, a series in which the Predators led three games to one.
Well, that does that, I thought, as did everyone else. With Semyon Varlamov and Jonathan Bernier both unfit to play that game, the Avs turned their eyes to Hammond and you just hoped the Avs would be able to keep it close and not be embarrassed.
Then, Hammond went out and had a 44-save masterpiece of a game, with Sven Andrighetto getting the game-winning goal late in a 2-1 win. This was what led to the famous “Guts all over the place!” radio call from Marc Moser.
That same pregame hopeless feeling no doubt gripped many Avs fans Monday night, when Hutchinson led the Avs onto the ice and was announced as the game’s starter. Pavel Francouz was deemed unfit to play. With Hunter Miska as the backup, this meant that the Avs now had a goaltending duo whose combined regular-season game total with the team: one.
Well, that does that.
I thought for sure I’d be on a plane home tomorrow. Hey, it was a fun 45-day stay. And yet, I also thought, “Well, this is 2020 and maybe we’ll see something crazy tonight.”
We did. We sure did. Now I’ve got to extend my stay at least a couple more nights. Time to dip further into that Avalanche Travel Tip Jar! (I won’t turn down any new donations, hint hint – here’s that link again lol).
The night’s other shocking goaltending news came from the Dallas side. Ben Bishop would be starting for the first time in the playoffs. He’s a Vezina-caliber goalie. Michael Hutchinson? Not really in that particular award conversation this year, no.
Here was a guy who was practically booed right out of Toronto earlier this season. Here was a guy who started all of one game for Colorado until this night, a game against the worst team in the league, Detroit. Hey, he won that game, but now he was facing a red-hot Dallas Stars team anxious to get to the next round.
Well, that ends that.
Instead, it was 5-0 after one period, with the shots 23-5 in favor of the Avalanche. It was a period of unicorns and cherry blossoms and ice cream sundaes and a snow day, all mixed into one.
Does a 5-0 lead after one period work to ease your nerves a bit, Hutch?
People think Hutchinson is this laughable, disgraceful goalie, but the fact is he went 21-10-5 for the 2014-15 Winnipeg Jets, with a .914 saves percentage. He actually got a little consideration for the Calder Trophy vote that season. Things did go badly for him after that, though. He had some losing seasons in Winnipeg before going to Florida to see only spot-time duty, then he went to the Maple Leafs and went 6-12-1 in parts of two seasons there.
Avs coach Jared Bednar knew Sunday night that Hutchinson would play, after learning that Francouz had something that would make him unfit to play.
Hutchinson said “having some good practices with the boys” helped make him feel comfortable enough getting out there. He finished with 31 saves, a nice game. Did he look a little shaky at times? Yeah, he did.
But he was sure a lot better than Ben Bishop, who was truly atrocious in his short time in net in that first period. And he was better than Pavel Francouz, at almost any point in this series. The Avs, to their true credit, played like a ticked-off bunch of Howard Beales, the name of a character from an old movie named Network where he says “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”
So, the Avs live to fight another day. The odds are still stacked against them, as Avs players keep dropping like flies in this series. Hammond was bad in that follow-up game, Game 6 at home, and the Avs were bounced out of the playoffs. Does Hutchinson have a better follow-up story to tell?
We’ll find out Wednesday night.
If Francouz is healthy, though, will he jump back in the net? That’s a tough question. Francouz was so very bad in Game 4 that it seems like maybe Bednar might be just a bit too afraid to play him again. Does it seem a little too convenient that Francouz was “unfit to play” so fast after a horrible game? Well maybe, but I’m not gonna get too conspiracy-theorist about it. All I know is, I felt pretty good with Hutch in net tonight. He’s a much bigger goalie than Francouz. He takes up more space. And I thought he was pretty square to the puck.
Do I have any true confidence in Hutch from here? Well, I think I and the rest of us need to get a much bigger sample size than that.
But the good news: there’s still a chance we’ll get that bigger sample size.