GDT: Game #4 Colorada in Vegas. Puck drop ~ 6:40pm MT. Avs Board is with the Boys tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[UncleRisto]

I think putting Byram in game 5 would turn him into more of a hated player than Nemo.

Would never.

It's a reasonable talking point though, not to step on that.

 

[LurkerMcgee]

Would never.

I’d hope not, but if he played worse than Nemo and caused as many goals against. Immediately in the dog house for years.

 

[StLAvsFan]

But that's the thing - we aren't competitive. This series should be 3-1 Vegas right now, it is not close whatsoever.

Other than Game 1, Vegas has put an absolute ass-whuppin' on the Avs. Anyone who doesn't realize it is either delusional, or they refuse to accept reality. I hope to hell the Avs bounce back in Game 5, but I know that the odds are heavily stacked in favor of the Knights putting another 60 min. beatdown on a soft, scared & utterly clueless Avs squad. And Game 6 will be even worse!

 

[UncleRisto]

I’d hope not, but if he played worse than Nemo and caused as many goals against. Immediately in the dog house for years.

For the remaining game or so and a little less confident into camp, no doubt, but he will still be a world class top prospect. He would have to kill Rantanen to pass Nemeth.

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

It's his 6th suspension...

I get that. 8 games - playoff games - was way more severe than I expected. I thought 6 games was merited.

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

If Bednar doesn’t play Byram and the Avs lose I want him fired, plain and simple.

He's not playing Byram. Special teams (PK) is his excuse and he's already made it.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

Hot take. I think putting Byram in game 5 would turn him into more of a hated player than Nemo. He hasn’t played in weeks and then shove him into a hard fast paced game that he’s never played in one remotely like before. I’d wager he scores on us more than help keep the puck out of the net. And that’s nothing against him. It’s just asking probably way to much from sitting in the press box. Might even hinder his confidence moving forward period. But I’m also not employed by any hockey body so my actual opinion is meaningless. Just my thoughts.

I doubt it. If Byram doesn’t play well you can chalk it up to rust/inexperience and move on knowing there’s a promising future ahead. It would be nothing to really get upset about.

Also… I wouldn’t say I’m mad at guys like Compher and Nemeth. Compher is being miscast as a centre.

Nemeth just isn’t good, I don’t hold that against him. He’s played himself out of the lineup, but Bednar keeps throwing him out there. That’s on the coach.

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

Not about to blame Grubauer. Dude finally let in a couple bad ones (I don't consider that first one a bad one, and that 110% on f***ing Nemeth), but that doesn't matter when the top line is doing absolutely nothing and you have one Brandon Saad goal to show for all your offense. He's been stellar. Can't expect a guy under siege to be perfect every night.

I think, also, Bednar and Pratt need to get these guys to settle down defensively. They're getting WAY too panicky every time Vegas charges down the ice and here's an obvious example.

The issue for me was watching how Vegas took care of our forwards in Vegas's D zone. No space. No time. Totally smothered.

And they were able to do so under 1 on 1 conditions!

Avs F3's stick stretch on the Vegas break out pass was pathetic.

Not only that, the forward stopped skating and then woke up to see it turned into a 3 on 2 and finally realized he'd missed his assignment.

 

[AvsCOL]

I’d personally like both Nemeth and Byram to be in for game 5. Go 11-7. Take Sherwood and Soderberg out, insert Newhook and Byram. Double shift Nate to get some different matchups.

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Nichushkin - Jost - Saad
Burakovsky - Compher - Donskoi
Newhook - Bellamare

Toews - Makar
Byram - Girard
Graves - Timmins
Nemeth

That way you have your PKer in Nemeth, and you can shelter Byram a bit to start.

 

[The Abusement Park]

I’d personally like both Nemeth and Byram to be in for game 5. Go 11-7. Take Sherwood and Soderberg out, insert Newhook and Byram. Double shift Nate to get some different matchups.

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Nichushkin - Jost - Saad
Burakovsky - Compher - Donskoi
Newhook - Bellamare

Toews - Makar
Byram - Girard
Graves - Timmins
Nemeth

That way you have your PKer in Nemeth, and you can shelter Byram a bit to start.

Yup. I agree with this. You have to get Byram in next game and add to the speed and transition advantage we have.

 

[Hockeyholic]

Just win tomorrow

 

[PowerMac]

All these excuses of we're missing Kadri when he was useless out there and killing plays. It's not Kadri that we're missing, it's Bednar needs to replace Compher with Newhook on the Donskoi/Burakovsky line. They also should split up Mackinnon and Rantanen already, when Mackinnon isn't into the game he drags the whole line down so they end up doing nothing for the whole game. At least this way even if Mackinnon isn't firing, you still have a chance that Rantanen will produce. And play him at Center cause we need size down the middle.

 

[Avs]

He's not playing Byram. Special teams (PK) is his excuse and he's already made it.

Which sucks. I’d gladly trade a PP goal or 2 against in favor of all the boneheaded mistakes leading to goals that Nemeth brings at even strength

 

[hawk30]

Game was bad. But it was not that bad.

Instead of being able to relax a little and grow into the game, Nemeth assists the game-tying goal. Grubauer has to have the 2-1 goal.

Second half of 2nd period guys settled down. Then created real chances to start the 3rd (though most missed the net), including some good zone time, before the gut punch 4-1 goal.

Have to build on something anyway.

 

[CharlesPuck]

The only reason we lost was because of the STUPID blue pants on the away uniform.

 

[dahrougem2]

Game was bad. But it was not that bad.

Instead of being able to relax a little and grow into the game, Nemeth assists the game-tying goal. Grubauer has to have the 2-1 goal.

Second half of 2nd period guys settled down. Then created real chances to start the 3rd (though most missed the net), including some good zone time, before the gut punch 4-1 goal.

Have to build on something anyway.

5v5:

Corsi 54-46 Vegas
Shots 26-17 Vegas
Scoring Chances 27-13 Vegas
High Danger Chances 17-5 Vegas
xGF% 69% - 31% Vegas

And that was our better game. Not that bad?

 

[cinchronicity]

I doubt it. If Byram doesn’t play well you can chalk it up to rust/inexperience and move on knowing there’s a promising future ahead. It would be nothing to really get upset about.

Also… I wouldn’t say I’m mad at guys like Compher and Nemeth. Compher is being miscast as a centre.

Nemeth just isn’t good, I don’t hold that against him. He’s played himself out of the lineup, but Bednar keeps throwing him out there. That’s on the coach.

I think this is an excellent take. This forum has quite a quotient of outright hate - Jost, JTC, Nemeth et. al. I was a pretty good defender in my day. But even on my best day ever, Nemeth, Soda, Jost and JTC would make me look like a complete fool, even on their worst day, with a sprained knee and the flu. Nemeth and Soda really don't fit Bednar's system, if one can call it a system. Nemeth would be a fine depth piece for Winnipeg or Montreal. Both those teams play a slow, plodding game. The fault lies with Sakic for acquiring those two. Then again, my impression at the time was to get a 5C/14W and an 8D. Bednar, in his genius, decided to play them is high profile roles.

 

[AvsCOL]

Best of 3, two of them at home. Doesn’t matter how you got here.

I believe in this team. They absolutely have what it takes.

 

[Pokecheque]

I’d hope not, but if he played worse than Nemo and caused as many goals against. Immediately in the dog house for years.

Nah. Most would be understanding that it’s a 19-year-old who hasn’t played in three months. It’s the “seasoned vet” who was supposed to be a good fit because he allegedly knew the system who’s getting roasted by the fans at present.

 

[AvBuff]

Not sure I get all the Bednar hate. I mean, the guy won the Presidents Trophy with this crew. You can quibble (maybe scream) about playing this guy v. that guy, but the bottom line is that Vegas' best players are outplaying Colorado's best players. Their system is beating our system. For now. But there's only so much mixing and matching you can do to combat crappy execution and poor decisions. MacKinnon et al needs to pull his head out and battle.

It's no secret what Vegas is doing system-wise and I'm sure Bednar has shown the vids to those guys and told them how to beat it. I'm sure we could also play a trap system and slow the game to a crawl to negate the VGKs but . . . that's not what the team is built for. We simply need to make the VGK's pay for all the crashing and forechecking down low. The breakouts are there - you just have to take a hit, not freak and do it.

Not an excuse, but the TMobile Center is just an artificially noise enhanced madhouse and you can't hear yourself think, much less communicate.

Let's hope home ice - and I mean ice, not a 200 foot McFlurry - will help the cause. If not . . . well, it'll be an interesting off season.

 

[The Shermanator]

I mean from the outside looking in, if you didn't watch the first 4 games you'd pick the Avs to win a best of 3 vs Vegas with 2 home games with all the talent we have on our roster right?

on paper...

 

[cinchronicity]

Not sure I get all the Bednar hate. I mean, the guy won the Presidents Trophy with this crew. You can quibble (maybe scream) about playing this guy v. that guy, but the bottom line is that Vegas' best players are outplaying Colorado's best players. Their system is beating our system. For now. But there's only so much mixing and matching you can do to combat crappy execution and poor decisions. MacKinnon et al needs to pull his head out and battle.

It's no secret what Vegas is doing system-wise and I'm sure Bednar has shown the vids to those guys and told them how to beat it. I'm sure we could also play a trap system and slow the game to a crawl to negate the VGKs but . . . that's not what the team is built for. We simply need to make the VGK's pay for all the crashing and forechecking down low. The breakouts are there - you just have to take a hit, not freak and do it.

Not an excuse, but the TMobile Center is just an artificially noise enhanced madhouse and you can't hear yourself think, much less communicate.

Let's hope home ice - and I mean ice, not a 200 foot McFlurry - will help the cause. If not . . . well, it'll be an interesting off season.

Bednar won the President's trophy? I missed him strapping on the skates. He RODE the team to the President's Trophy but has almost nothing to do with it. My criticism of Bednar has been the same for 2 years: He gets outcoached on a daily basis. You, yourself, said that their system is beating our system. Who is in charge of the system? Bellemare? Furthermore, I think the last thing that should be done, in general, is mixing and matching. That is the Bednar Blender and is the most obvious flaw in his strategy.

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

Bednar won the President's trophy? I missed him strapping on the skates. He RODE the team to the President's Trophy but has almost nothing to do with it. My criticism of Bednar has been the same for 2 years: He gets outcoached on a daily basis. You, yourself, said that their system is beating our system. Who is in charge of the system? Bellemare? Furthermore, I think the last thing that should be done, in general, is mixing and matching. That is the Bednar Blender and is the most obvious flaw in his strategy.

See I can't understand this. From what you've said I conclude:

* Bednar is not responsible for the Avs winning the president's trophy because he just rode the team and had nothing to do with it
* Bednar is responsible for the Avs losing the last 2 games against Vegas because he gets outcoached on a daily basis.

Which is it? He has nothing to do with the success, but is solely responsible for the failures?

The Vegas system being better than the Avs system doesn't mean he's a bad coach, a system is built around its players and the component parts. We couldn't implement the Vegas system because we do not have the players to do so. The Avs system works great for the players we have. We got a lot of mileage out of it and we're still in with a shot of moving on to the next round. It just maybe does not match up well with Vegas, but if we want a new system we need some new players who fit that system.

You can't just change the entire system each game because you need to practice and get player buy-in and learn a new system, so your options for reacting are somewhat limited. The Bednar Blender I think has had some success and some failure over the years, but it's not like you can suddenly turn around in the 3rd period and turn into prime Wild trapping.

 

[drhiii]

The only reason we lost was because of the STUPID blue pants on the away uniform.

... and, how many did not follow their pregame routines? That jinxed it before it started. I am guilty.

 

[The Kingslayer]

... and, how many did not follow their pregame routines? That jinxed it before it started. I am guilty.

I did my part. I booked a tee time....might be foreshadowing for the Avs