GDT: Avalanche vs Stars, Round 2, Game 6, 5/17/24 @8:00PM MNT: I don't wanna golf yet!

[Balthazar]

How many times has Bednar lost in the yoffs to DeBoer? Bednar is DeBoers BITCH through and through

No, you don't understand. It's because the Avs are tired when they face DeBoer teams and not because he gives the Avs no space and time to skate and create offense.

/s

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Stars were slowed, but the Avs bottom six combined for zero points in Games 3-6.

 

[The Moops]

Stars were slowed, but the Avs bottom six combined for zero points in Games 3-6.

Same thing that sunk us in Seattle. I was hoping we'd get better scoring from our depth this year

 

[chet1926]

Man, people give DeBoer WAY too much credit for being some sort of Bednar kryptonite.

Swap rosters and tell me what happens. Colorado got beat by a deeper roster with a goaltender who rediscovered his elite play these playoffs.

Jared Bednar's undoing was his own fault for playing MacKinnon and Rantanen WAY too much during the regular season. It was never more evident that MacKinnon was out of gas than these playoffs. He never once looked like himself.

They lowered Makar's minutes a bit this season and he looked energized in the playoffs. Outside of games 3/4 where every Avalanche player sucked I thought he was the team's best player.

This isn't a stylistic problem. DeBoer doesn't magically have all the answers just because his deeper roster (all three series, btw) has beaten Bednar's. That usually happens.

This is a problem created by Bednar himself, one that I hope Joe Sakic speaks to him about and demands he fix. This cannot continue. The regular season doesn't mean f*** all. Nathan MacKinnon and (if here) Mikko Rantanen should not play a single game above 20 minutes next season. Cale Makar should not see any game above 23 minutes.

Keep these guys fresh for the playoffs. Sakic has to make that explicitly clear to Bednar.

Yeah I'm sick of this DeBoer narrative. Simply put he had the deeper stronger roster that was insanely motivated as a lot of those guys are getting older and it might be their last Cup shot.

He isn't a magician, their team was simply better. Unfortunately better teams win more often than not. We watched a loaded Avs team crush pretty much everyone in 2022. Doesn't mean Bednar was a better coach than those guys he just had a loaded roster that was going to be tough to beat.

I'm terms of the Avs moving forward, I agree that 29, 96 and 8 can't shoulder the insane work load. Maybe not as low of mins you are suggesting but can't be 25+ on a consistent basis.

Got to figure out Nuke. Nuke can't keep f***ing us. Not sure options there.

Hate to say it, since it really isn't in his control, but Landy can't keep f***ing us either. Either he can play or not. This constant guessing/wondering isn't helping the team. If it's not looking good during the off season then the decision needs to be made then. Get someone else the C and stop playing the guessing game.

After that I'd be looking at how to add a true shooter to the lineup. He wasn't elite but Burakovsky sure as hell made this team much more dangerous. We have too many pass first players and/or grinders who aren't offensively gifted. A sniper that doesn't play top line is a big need.

Assistant coaches need to go, it's beyond stale. We simply need some new ideas. I'd honestly say Bednar should go as well, but I don't see that happening.

Lastly we need younger guys to step up and contribute. Guys like Ritchie, Behrens, Kovalenko, Foudy, and Malinski. Got to have draft picks do something for you.

 

[S E P H]

Also, that GWG goal was eerie similar to the one Parise scored against the Rags and Lundqvist in Game 7 when the Devils made the Cup Finals. A lot of running around due to not winning any faceoffs and an inability to get the puck out of the zone.

 

[tucker3434]

The problem is that the teams 3 best players weren’t difference makers often enough. I don’t really have a problem with Makar, he was still creating chances and you didn’t really see him being a grump out there. MacK and Rants on the other hand…wooof, Rantanen looked like he had a stride count limiter set to three, and MacK just pouted the whole time

I don't think they played that poorly. I think sometimes you're just kinda snakebit. A .960 PDO can happen for some guys over a short series. When it does, you hope your depth steps up and pitches in until the top guys break out of their funk.

It was a tight series. Another bounce here or there, we've got a game 7 tomorrow. I don't believe that kind of gap is worth overreacting to.

 

[the_fan]

Same thing that sunk us in Seattle. I was hoping we'd get better scoring from our depth this year

Stars were slowed, but the Avs bottom six combined for zero points in Games 3-6.

It’s not like Dallas bottom 6 did a lot of scoring. Duchene scored that OT winner but that was his 1st goal and like 2nd point of the series. The difference between their bottom 6 and ours is that they have more defensively responsible players and you can put them out there in any situation against anyone, which makes a difference even if the point production isn’t there.

 

[AvBuff]

Some random thoughts . . .

1. I go back to 1996. Talk about a core . . . Sakic, Roy, Forsberg, Foote, Krupp, Lemieux. Headed by Pierre Lacroix - whose name is on a banner at Ball Arena. And that "loaded core" with that HOF management didn't win another Cup until 5 years later in 2001. Until they added Ray Bourque. Between the Cups, the Avs got beat by Dallas and Detroit in the playoffs. I didn't hear anybody talking about Avs management "wasting" a talented core. It's more of a function of . . .

2. . . . winning a Stanley Cup is insanely hard. Winning a Stanley Cup back to back or even every other year is even harder. Its been done but its the the very limited exception, not the rule. Wanna waste a core? Follow the Edmonton playbook. Dallas will cream that team in a week.

3. Pete DeBoer? Good coach. Whose "lock down", defensive-counterpunch system has gotten him fired from 4 jobs in 10 years. Trust me, DeBoer doesn't have stuffed Jared Bednar trophy heads on his wall. He's never won a Cup with his playbook. Bednar has. It's all DeBoer cares about. It just so happens that DeBoer has really good players this year to go with his "system". But it's my bet he'll lose to Florida. Nobody talks about Scotty Bowman or Ken Hitchcock being the Avs "kryptonite". They just had good teams those years they beat the Avs. And when Colorado has a better team, even a guy like Bob Hartley can win a Cup. I think Bednar is a slightly better coach than Bob Hartley.

4. The 2022 Avs would have taken the 2024 Dallas Stars apart - that Avs team was a monster. We should appreciate it, not call for heads because MacSakic couldn't recreate it.

5. Hockey is fun. It's why I watch it. The Avalanche are really fun. The guys we get to watch play are generational talents. They're just not PlayStation avatars that destroy everybody every year. There are 28 teams in the League that would trade the Avs roster for theirs straight up, no questions asked. Including the mighty Winnipeg Jets. THAT was fun . . .

6. The bright side: 2C is no longer an issue (although Middlestadt was hurt last night). We no longer are searching for goalie. AG was great. Just gotta figure out the Nuke/Landy thing.

7. Last night stings. But I think it's Florida's year anyway.

 

[MacKaRant]

Honestly, if Nuke doesn't absolutely bone us, I think we're in Game 7 at a minimum. Margins were so fine in this series, and we desperately needed another gamebreaker at forward.

If one of those 3 glorious around-the-net chances in Game 6 fell to Nuke instead of Lehky or Parise, I think Nuke slots one or two of them home.

 

[dahrougem2]

No, you don't understand. It's because the Avs are tired when they face DeBoer teams and not because he gives the Avs no space and time to skate and create offense.

/s

No, it IS because they were tired.

In a double OT game last night Bednar still didn't allow his 4th line more than 9 minutes. The lowest Stars forward was Faksa at 15 minutes. That is close to 10 extra shifts Faksa got over our entire 4th line.

Bednar overplayed his top guys - again - like he did all season. They were exhausted.

 

[LOFIN]

Honestly, if Nuke doesn't absolutely bone us, I think we're in Game 7 at a minimum. Margins were so fine in this series, and we desperately needed another gamebreaker at forward.

If one of those 3 glorious around-the-net chances in Game 6 fell to Nuke instead of Lehky or Parise, I think Nuke slots one or two of them home.

And if we are in G7, anything could've happened. And if we win and go to the WCF, we are facing an easier opponent than Dallas...

If Ifs and Buts Were Candy and Nuts... I guess the bottom-line is that this team doesn't need some major overhaul. But because of the cap situation, some turnover is expected. And it would be nice if Bednar could try to learn some new tricks for next season.

 

[Balthazar]

No, it IS because they were tired.

In a double OT game last night Bednar still didn't allow his 4th line more than 9 minutes. The lowest Stars forward was Faksa at 15 minutes. That is close to 10 extra shifts Faksa got over our entire 4th line.

Bednar overplayed his top guys - again - like he did all season. They were exhausted.

Every line was exhausted because Bednar's strategy against DeBoer is "try harder". Instead of adjusting to how the Stars are playing the Avs were pushing harder and harder even if it didn't work.

Also I'm not making this shit up, it comes from Bednar himself. "They know what to do, they have to keep pushing".

 

[MacKaRant]

Honestly, if Nuke doesn't absolutely bone us, I think we're in Game 7 at a minimum. Margins were so fine in this series, and we desperately needed another gamebreaker at forward.

If one of those 3 glorious around-the-net chances in Game 6 fell to Nuke instead of Lehky or Parise, I think Nuke slots one or two of them home.

Who?

 

[AegonLeConqueror]

If there is anything I hope the off season brings with a new roster, it’s players who aren’t such p***yes. Yeah we f***ing hate Marchment and Benn, but having a complete POS who can just bully the other team IS helpful in the playoffs. We either have too many choir boys or Bednar tells his players to be nice. Which needs to change

 

[Muffin]

I love how every year when we get eliminated I go "Oh, well the rest of the playoffs can eat dicks.

As long as the Oilers get eliminated tonight I couldn’t care less what happens after that.

 

[henchman21]

DeBoer is a very good coach and he is a major reason the Avs lost. Not the only, but a big part of it. Sometimes you have to tip your cap.

 

[JudoKoala]

I love how every year when we get eliminated I go "Oh, well the rest of the playoffs can eat dicks."

Sports!

Think about how much free time we have now. Every other night I'm getting a pit in my stomach knowing I gotta stress over watching these chucklef***s blow another game. Now I can just f*** off and do whatever I want and ignore this shit until October.

 

[dahrougem2]

Every line was exhausted because Bednar's strategy against DeBoer is "try harder". Instead of adjusting to how the Stars are playing the Avs were pushing harder and harder even if it didn't work.

Also I'm not making this shit up, it comes from Bednar himself. "They know what to do, they have to keep pushing".

The Avs did adjust. They gave Dallas nothing in the first 40 minutes.

They simply had nothing left in the tank. 5v5 this series:

Nathan MacKinnon: 131 minutes
Mikko Rantanen: 128 minutes
Artturi Lehkonen: 108 minutes
Casey Mittelstadt: 102 minutes

Wyatt Johnston: 100 minutes
Jason Robertson: 100 minutes
Joe Pavelski: 96 minutes
Matt Duchene: 87 minutes

Compared to the Stars top players it's as if MacKinnon and Rantanen played an extra game and a period. Not to mention their already ludicrous regular season minutes.

These guys were tired. Bednar has to learn from this.

 

[RockLobster]

I believe it’s time to start getting back to developing the prospects depth of the franchise. Get back to keeping draft picks to develop that depth.

What do you mean “get back”? That would imply that the had done that before, and were somewhat good at it.


And they hadn’t and they weren’t.

 

[S E P H]

For all the peeps blaming Girard for being the reason for the OT goal last night, remember that EJ was the reason why we lost to Wild back in 2014 due to Niederreiter's GWG. Yet, he nearly got zero blame because everyone "loves him."

7. Last night stings. But I think it's Florida's year anyway.

Without Nuke, we could've beat Dallas and I still believe that, but there was no chance we were going to beat the Panthers or the Rags out of the East or even make it out of the WCF.

 

[Balthazar]

He's not talking about Bednar...



@dahrougem2

 

[dahrougem2]

He's not talking about Bednar...



@dahrougem2

Everyone knows DeBoer is a good guy. Whiny, but a good guy. TMV mentioned how he goes out of his way to learn every media member's name.

 

[UncleRisto]

He's not talking about Bednar...



@dahrougem2

Parise obviously was the captain for the Devils under DeBoer. Maybe I missed some conversation, but for context for anyone.

 

[wayninja]

Everyone knows DeBoer is a good guy. Whiny, but a good guy. TMV mentioned how he goes out of his way to learn every media member's name.

Exactly. Similarly, I learn the name of all of my concubines

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

Same thing that sunk us in Seattle. I was hoping we'd get better scoring from our depth this year

True. But more that if Parise's stick blade didn't get caught momentarily in Oettingers (?) pad in the OT, he would have had the game winner. It was that close.