GDT: Game 47: Avs @ Sens | 5 PM MT | January 16, 2019 | Ottawa Rising

[klozge]

Not sure I'll watch more of this until Bednar finally gets fired. He's not even trying anymore. The team is forced to stick to systems which clearly don't work and has now become a confused, lifeless mess. No preparation, no adjustments, no ideas, no heart. Bednar hockey.
But yeah, blame it on holes in the lineup and crappy goaltending. Like the Sens had no holes in the lineup and had a great goalie (playing well this season, though, defensive systems might play a role) between the pipes last night. Coaching is an embarrassment this year.

 

[klozge]

If the Avs could play the way they are playing when they are down by 3-4 goals damn this team would actually be good.

The problem is the opponents usually don't give up the neutral zone so easily when they're not up by 3-4 goals.

Edit: Avs have no puck support. The things happening in the scoring zone are often bad but they lose because of their play in the other two zones. It shouldn't even be too difficult to fix this but Bednar doesn't seem to be interested.

 

[jvcjdudu jcycyxjene]

Need a winning steak badly...EJ has turned a corner but Girard and Cole have regressed terribly

And dont forget about Barrie

 

[jvcjdudu jcycyxjene]

Flames on means attack my position.

So while at it may as well add.. MacK is an island. I do not see an iota of leadership out of him. He is an alternate Cap for the Avs, and was named as a Cap in the All Star thing. Both show pieces.

Look, he is young. Mebbe he will grow into a leadership role. Some are born, some are made. He is neither. Yet. Would be nice.

Leadership viewed from afar in terms of the Avs, a black hole. These comments are emerging elsewhere too. I place a great deal of fault in the lack of leadership in their play. Could go into far more analysis, but why..

So what you're saying is MacKinnon needs more intangibles? I think the 97 points he put up last year are evidence enough of his talent. I dont want, nor do the Avs want Mack to be Jonathan Toews. I personally just want him to be more consistent, but I think that him being competitive and passionate is 100x better than him being complacent/apathetic like we've seen from several players over the years.

You call it poor leadership and immaturity, but I'd say it's his intensity that makes him such a dominant force in big-game situations, as we saw during the Mem Cup and the Wild Series, and many times last season. But anyways, we dont need a captain, as we already have a pretty damn good one who's filling the role just fine. The team just needs some time + a move or two to improve around the current core we have in place.

 

[Avs71]

Barrie is still running away with the scoring from the back end, but it would be nice to see him score a few more goals.

He has 5 goals, Zadorov has 4 (in 7 less games), and EJ has 3.

Barrie should be well ahead of those players in goals, but for some reason he just isn’t scoring this year. He’s passing up a lot of good opportunities to shoot.

 

[Hesher]

This team is bi-polar. They go from dominating teams in one game to barely looking like an NHL team the next game

 

[Ivan13]

I don't get the "Avs are where we thought they'll be" crowd. Sure we are on the bubble, but we certainly are not playing like a bubble team for the last two months. I might be a little bit off with my math, but the Avs are the team with the least amount of points since December started. They most assuredly are not where we thought they will be in terms of actual product on the ice for the last two months. The only reason we are anywhere near a playoff stop is that insane run we had for a while, and the fact that West and Central, in particular, are a hot mess.

We've won as many games in the last 17 or 18 games as the team we like to dump on in a certain thread did in the past 4 games.

 

[Bender]

So if anyone really believes that the Mack outburst against the Flames is a thing of the past, you better think again. MacKinnon is not playing his best right now and I believe it's because he's tired of Bednar's ridiculous coaching decisions. He's WAYYYYYYYYY too slow to make adjustments when someone is playing poorly (Ian Cole for example \ Barberio over Nemeth or Graves is just plain not seeing what's happening out there) and has a different standard for different guys when it comes to mistakes and costly turnovers. Some guys can do it without EVER getting benched (Comeau (last year), Calvert, Wilson) whereas others end up on the bench or demoted every time they make a mistake. It's BS.

The sad part is that I'm not so sure Sakic ends up making a coaching change until after this season when we miss the playoffs. It will give him an excuse to make a coaching change. Oh and we WILL miss the playoffs unless something dramatic happens.

I mean any normal NHL head coach would kind of understand - 'great, we have a great top line with top notch talent and they have chemistry with one another' but 95% of them would have broken up that line (not pretend break-up that line for like 1 period) to spread the talent around after being so bad for the past 10-15 games. MacKinnon is dangerous no matter who he plays with and Rantanen adds a dangerous component to any line he's on. With that in mind, how is it so hard to come up with a more balanced lineup?

Why is Bednar so deathly afraid to at least TRY different things? All of the really good coaches who have won cups (Quenneville, Julien, Babcock, etc...) always get accused of switching things up TOO MUCH while Bednar keeps using the same predictable formula??

It took an abysmal 20 game stretch for him to even try and put Soderberg as the 2nd line C but there are still different combinations he could throw out there to make us a more balanced team. You give Soderberg - Compher but still saddle him with Wilson?? Seriously?

Message to Bednar : Colin Wilson is NOT a 2nd line player!! No matter how much you like him, he's not good enough to play there!

Landeskog-MacKinnon-Compher
Jost-Soderberg-Rantanen
Calvert-Kerfoot-Nieto
Wilson-Dries-Andrighetto

Zadorov-Barrie
Girard-EJ
Cole-Nemeth

That would be MY lineup with the option to swap-out Jost with Kerfoot depending on how things are playing out. I posted that very same lineup in early december. I can't believe he hasn't at least TRIED something similar and always seems to f***-up whoever is playing on the 2nd line by sticking them with Colin f***ing Wilson!

 

[UncleRisto]

It's the two worst teams in the NHL during a two-month period. It is to be expected that both teams could win a single game, since they can't both lose. Weird how there's this hyperbole about how you can't possibly lose to the Sens and vice versa.

 

[hooverdam]

I really don’t know what Bednar could do besides make the goalies play better. I just don’t know.

 

[Mules]

I really don’t know what Bednar could do besides make the goalies play better. I just don’t know.

He can start Francouz. Bednar has nothing to lose.
It's interesting that he just flatly refuse to try third goalie when the other two aren't working.
Varly/ Grubauer tandem is tandem that pull each other down.

I remember in Q's days, at least we will still make it to playoff ( after being in playoff position halfway season).

 

[OwenNolan]

So if anyone really believes that the Mack outburst against the Flames is a thing of the past, you better think again. MacKinnon is not playing his best right now and I believe it's because he's tired of Bednar's ridiculous coaching decisions. He's WAYYYYYYYYY too slow to make adjustments when someone is playing poorly (Ian Cole for example \ Barberio over Nemeth or Graves is just plain not seeing what's happening out there) and has a different standard for different guys when it comes to mistakes and costly turnovers. Some guys can do it without EVER getting benched (Comeau (last year), Calvert, Wilson) whereas others end up on the bench or demoted every time they make a mistake. It's BS.

The sad part is that I'm not so sure Sakic ends up making a coaching change until after this season when we miss the playoffs. It will give him an excuse to make a coaching change. Oh and we WILL miss the playoffs unless something dramatic happens.

I mean any normal NHL head coach would kind of understand - 'great, we have a great top line with top notch talent and they have chemistry with one another' but 95% of them would have broken up that line (not pretend break-up that line for like 1 period) to spread the talent around after being so bad for the past 10-15 games. MacKinnon is dangerous no matter who he plays with and Rantanen adds a dangerous component to any line he's on. With that in mind, how is it so hard to come up with a more balanced lineup?

Why is Bednar so deathly afraid to at least TRY different things? All of the really good coaches who have won cups (Quenneville, Julien, Babcock, etc...) always get accused of switching things up TOO MUCH while Bednar keeps using the same predictable formula??

It took an abysmal 20 game stretch for him to even try and put Soderberg as the 2nd line C but there are still different combinations he could throw out there to make us a more balanced team. You give Soderberg - Compher but still saddle him with Wilson?? Seriously?

Message to Bednar : Colin Wilson is NOT a 2nd line player!! No matter how much you like him, he's not good enough to play there!

Landeskog-MacKinnon-Compher
Jost-Soderberg-Rantanen
Calvert-Kerfoot-Nieto
Wilson-Dries-Andrighetto

Zadorov-Barrie
Girard-EJ
Cole-Nemeth

That would be MY lineup with the option to swap-out Jost with Kerfoot depending on how things are playing out. I posted that very same lineup in early december. I can't believe he hasn't at least TRIED something similar and always seems to ****-up whoever is playing on the 2nd line by sticking them with Colin ****ing Wilson!

Compher doesn't deserve 20 minutes a night with the top line. Compher is a nice 3rd liner.

Jost doesn't even deserve to be playing right now nevermind seeing 18 minutes a night on the 2nd line.

I like Soderberg but he is not a 2nd line center. He can't win a faceoff for the life of him.

Kerfoot with Nieto and Calvert on the 3rd line? No thanks. 2 of those guys should be seeing no more than 10 minutes a night on the 4th line.

3 guys in your lineup shouldn't even be playing nevermind getting too minutes. Jost, Dries and Andrighetto are no where near a competing teams top 4 lines.

Harp on Bednar all you want but even the announcers said it multiple times last night. We lack secondary scoring.

Only a mad mad or a fool would break up the Mack line. They are playing historically good hockey together and are the ONLY reason we win games.

Landeskog - MacKinnon- Rantanen
? - ? - ?
Kerfoot - Soderberg - Compher
Nieto/Wilson - ? - Calvert

Jost, Andrighetto and Dries should be no-where near an NHL roster.

We are lacking an entire 2nd line and a 4th line center. There is nothing Bednar can do aside ride the Mack line and if they get shut down we lose. Plain and simple.

 

[klozge]

I really don’t know what Bednar could do besides make the goalies play better. I just don’t know.

Plenty of things. Avs need to adjust their way to protect the puck carrier or make it easier for him to make a pass in the neutral zone for example. Our dmen need to put more pressure on the opposing puck carrier when he enters our zone in many situations instead of always moving backwards as another example. Powerplay zone entry, system used for killing penalties... there is a lot he can do but he never makes adjustments during the season. I don't even know what they're practicing because I haven't seen improvements in any aspect of the team's play. Also he doesn't seem to understand what his team and players can and what they can't do which probably is the reason why he still tries stuff which can't work for three of our four lines.

He doesn't need to turn this season's team into a cup winner but he needs to actually coach between and during games. And he doesn't seem to be able to do that.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

Compher-Soderberg-Wilson
Nieto-Kerfoot-Calvert
Jost-Dries-Andrighetto

That is a terrible bottom 9, quite possibly the worst in the league. Everyone will have a hard time coaching a roster like that for multiple seasons.

 

[hooverdam]

He can start Francouz. Bednar has nothing to lose.
It's interesting that he just flatly refuse to try third goalie when the other two aren't working.
Varly/ Grubauer tandem is tandem that pull each other down.

I remember in Q's days, at least we will still make it to playoff ( after being in playoff position halfway season).

Francouz is in the AHL so that's kind of not up to him. It's up to Sakic to decide they need to carry three goaltenders, and that's not a move most GMs make, especially with guys coming in and out of the lineup as we get healthy.

Basically Bednar can tinker all he wants with the lineup he has, but unless Sakic gets him a more viable option in goal (whether that be via trade acquisition or trading one to make room for Francouz) there's simply not a lot he can do with the goaltending situation. They have to be better. He cannot make them play better.

Everything about December and January has a different face with good goaltending. This team can absolutely be dominant again with some stability back there.

 

[shadow1]

Compher-Soderberg-Wilson
Nieto-Kerfoot-Calvert
Jost-Dries-Andrighetto

That is a terrible bottom 9, quite possibly the worst in the league. Everyone will have a hard time coaching a roster like that for multiple seasons.

I can think of several teams which sport a better third line than Colorado’s second line.

 

[chet1926]

The only thing they bugs me about this team is their utter lack of effort the past basically two months. Everyone just thinks they can go out there coast around and things will magically fall into place.

There is clearly no leadership from the supposed leaders cough cough Landy, MacK and EJ. You guys have the letters on your jersey, you are the ones who need to get us going when things go stale.

It's not on the coach to tell you that you need to give 100% effort. It's f***ing mid January you should know by now you can't coast through games, in sleepwalk mode.

I'm calling out Landy, MacK and EJ. f***ing grow up and get the ship back on course that's your job as captains. Hold a players only meeting, stop trying to be everyone's friend, call people out, anything is better than this apathetic mess where no one seems to give a shit.

Yeah Bednar needs to be better as well, but the vast majority of this crap falls on the players who have been getting the same shitty results.

 

[Raucherhusten]

The only thing they bugs me about this team is their utter lack of effort the past basically two months. Everyone just thinks they can go out there coast around and things will magically fall into place.

I stopped reading after this BS. You can say whatever you want about the team/coaching stuff/management but the effort on the ice is almost always there. It's the lack of skill and talent that is killing us. Pretty much everyone on the ice is trying HARD (even a no good SOB like Jost is hustling like a mad man) but most of them are simply not good enough. And it shows.

Combine that with a lackluster goaltending, an ice cold PP and a mediocre PK and you got the main reasons why we are losing.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

I stopped reading after this BS. You can say whatever you want about the team/coaching stuff/management but the effort on the ice is almost always there. It's the lack of skill and talent that is killing us. Pretty much everyone on the ice is trying HARD (even a no good SOB like Jost is hustling like a mad man) but most of them are simply not good enough. And it shows.

Combine that with a lackluster goaltending, an ice cold PP and a mediocre PK and you got the main reasons why we are losing.

Seems too logical to be true.

The Avs suck because they do not care about the games and are interested in something else like the upcoming summer golf tour. They coast all game long and the leaders of the team do not give a f*** what happens. That sounds much more reasonable.

 

[chet1926]

I stopped reading after this BS. You can say whatever you want about the team/coaching stuff/management but the effort on the ice is almost always there. It's the lack of skill and talent that is killing us. Pretty much everyone on the ice is trying HARD (even a no good SOB like Jost is hustling like a mad man) but most of them are simply not good enough. And it shows.

Combine that with a lackluster goaltending, an ice cold PP and a mediocre PK and you got the main reasons why we are losing.

I'm sorry but this simply isn't the case. We have spurts during games where we look like we are giving a solid effort. But that usually comes after we are losing by a couple or more.

This team rarely gives quality effort for the vast majority of a game. It's 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there. For good portions of the game we are always second to the puck, don't win puck battles, let other teams skate circles around us. I'm not saying this is every game but it's a fairly consistent theme.

Just take this last road trip. We played 3 good games and 2 games where we looked like we just didn't care. That's 40% of the trip we just flushed down the drain because of effort. We got a little unlucky in Winnipeg and Calgary but that still doesn't defeat the fact we shit away two games because we didn't bother to show up.

And this has been a consistent theme for two months. Good spurts here and there but mostly uninspired, lackidasical hockey, where we hope the other team will just roll over for us.

 

[Bender]

Compher doesn't deserve 20 minutes a night with the top line. Compher is a nice 3rd liner.

Jost doesn't even deserve to be playing right now nevermind seeing 18 minutes a night on the 2nd line.

I like Soderberg but he is not a 2nd line center. He can't win a faceoff for the life of him.

Kerfoot with Nieto and Calvert on the 3rd line? No thanks. 2 of those guys should be seeing no more than 10 minutes a night on the 4th line.

3 guys in your lineup shouldn't even be playing nevermind getting too minutes. Jost, Dries and Andrighetto are no where near a competing teams top 4 lines.

Harp on Bednar all you want but even the announcers said it multiple times last night. We lack secondary scoring.

Only a mad mad or a fool would break up the Mack line. They are playing historically good hockey together and are the ONLY reason we win games.

Landeskog - MacKinnon- Rantanen
? - ? - ?
Kerfoot - Soderberg - Compher
Nieto/Wilson - ? - Calvert

Jost, Andrighetto and Dries should be no-where near an NHL roster.

We are lacking an entire 2nd line and a 4th line center. There is nothing Bednar can do aside ride the Mack line and if they get shut down we lose. Plain and simple.

Lol what a ridiculous take. Yeah let's NOT change anything because it's going SO well right now.

I'm not saying that would be my lineup going forward forever but only a fool keeps doing the same thing over and over and expects different results.

Everyone f***ING knows we lack secondary scoring, I don't need an idiot sportsnet announcer to confirm it, it's f***ing obvious and you completely missed my point (not surprising). The issue isn't that my lineup would necessarily work, the issue is that it hasn't BEEN TRIED...not even for a 2-3 game stretch.

Kerfoot, Nieto and Calvert all played together against the Leafs and played pretty well too, except for a few shifts. (The TSN announcer even said so )

And by the way, J.T. Compher has 19 points in 31 GP...that's on pace for 50 points in an 82 game season. Seems pretty good for a '3rd liner' who's been played all over the lineup.

 

[BleedWell]

Lol what a ridiculous take. Yeah let's NOT change anything because it's going SO well right now.

I'm not saying that would be my lineup going forward forever but only a fool keeps doing the same thing over and over and expects different results.

Everyone ****ING knows we lack secondary scoring, I don't need an idiot sportsnet announcer to confirm it, it's ****ing obvious and you completely missed my point (not surprising). The issue isn't that my lineup would necessarily work, the issue is that it hasn't BEEN TRIED...not even for a 2-3 game stretch.

Kerfoot, Nieto and Calvert all played together against the Leafs and played pretty well too, except for a few shifts. (The TSN announcer even said so )

And by the way, J.T. Compher has 19 points in 31 GP...that's on pace for 50 points in an 82 game season. Seems pretty good for a '3rd liner' who's been played all over the lineup.

Yeah but still. Your lineup looked like s***.

 

[AllAboutAvs]

- Mack making comments on getting Hughes and Kakko
- Fans saying we will win easily against OTT
...
...
Was I right yesterday about karma?

I don't know if karma exist but I do know that comments like the one made by Mack fires up the other team. Always better to keep your mouth shut before the game and do your talking with your play on the ice.

People can say Bednar and/or Sakic are to blame for where we are now but I still don't think so. This season was still about assessing where the kids were and if they could take another step forward. It can be argued that Compher did and Kamenev was also doing better but he got hit again with another major injury. It can also be argued that Kerfoot had taken another step up to December. However they were entirely wrong on Jost so far and that has caused problems in the line up. They certainly didn't expect EJ to regress starting this year as well.

The main issue is still goaltending. Everybody from Sakic and Bednar to all of us here on HF thought that goaltending was going to be a strength this season. It pretty well was until Dec and then it went all downhill from there. Last night loss was more due to a lack of effort until they were down 3-0 but you need your goalie to steal you some games once in a while and it hasn't happened since the beginning of Dec. Yesterday was another well below .900 SV%. With just average goaltending we could be around 10th in the league and we would all be very happy with this season.

This goaltending situation needs to be addressed. If I were Sakic I would trade Varly for a good bottom-6 player. They are moving on from him anyway so bite the bullet and do it now. This will:
1. Help the bottom-6 where we are weak.
2. You are not losing an asset (Varly) for nothing.
2. Make a statement to Gru and Frankie that it's their job to lose. Fight it out.
3. Frankie could provide the spark needed to get them going again.

I would also try to sign Morris once he is done with his NCAA season and let him and Werner battle it out in the AHL next season.

 

[Bender]

Yeah but still. Your lineup looked like s***.

It's true...I should leave it to the experts who TRULY know hockey like yourself and Swollen Nolan.

Pretty quick to criticize others without actually providing anything of your own. You're truly super appreciated here.

 

[Foppberg]

It's true...I should leave it to the experts who TRULY know hockey like yourself and Swollen Nolan.

Pretty quick to criticize others without actually providing anything of your own. You're truly super appreciated here.

He's not worth your, or anyone's effort dude.