GDT: GAME LI: Canucks @ Avalanche...wait...there's hockey again?

[Foppberg]

There are a lot of things wrong with the team, goaltending is one of them yes, but it's not the only thing or the biggest problem. The biggest problem with this team as it's been for many years, when things are going right, they are winning games, when things start to go wrong, the players give up and there is just no fight left in them. Those are coaching and leadership issues, no one can show the neccessary leadership needed to get out of the slump. It's just too easy to blame goalies after every loss, but the fact is the entire team has lost confidence again, so to say goaltending is the only reason or the biggest reason is inaccurate.

Secondary scoring is a big issues, defense is a big issue, there are lots of turnovers which lead to goals. You cant just blame everything on goaltending

At the end of November the Avalanche were 1 point back of Nashville for 1st in the west. Since then...

- Avs have given up the 3rd least shots against in the NHL.
- Avs have given up 2nd least scoring chances in the NHL.
- Avs have given up 2nd most goals against.
- Avs have the lowest save percentage in the league.

It’s pretty clearly that goaltending is the issue here.

In 2019 it gets even crazier.

- least shot attempts against in NHL
- least high danger shot attempts against
- least scoring chances against
- 10th in goals for (they’re still scoring goals despite people thinking they aren’t)
- highest corsi for% in the NHL.
- .845sv% LOL

The Avs are preventing shots against. Preventing teams from getting to the dangerous areas of the ice. Outshooting teams every night. Scoring more than 2/3rds of the league. The goaltenders just can’t make a save.

The Avs are dominating hockey games and still losing every night. There’s been just 3 games since December 29 that the Avs reached .900sv% goaltending. The Colorado Avalanche are basically the polar opposite of Patrick Roy’s Colorado Avalanche

___

Here ya go, courtesy of Cousin Eddie.

 

[CobraAcesS]

Agreed. The ideal time for a coaching change would have been at the all-star break and with the Avs record since December, I don't think too many people would have blamed him.

I think people that are angry that Sakic hasn't made a significant move just aren't seeing things for what they are : we just aren't good enough right now and we have too many holes. If a large majority of us can see it, why would anyone think that Sakic can't???

* Coaching has not been good enough, I think most people can see that. Ian Cole has been an abomination on most nights since early December and doesn't miss a shift (again last night - directly responsible for the 2-on-1 to get the scoring started for Vancouver with a completely MORONIC and unnecessary pinch). If Zadorov does that, he's healthy scratched for sure. You can't have that kind of double standard...players catch-on to that kind of horse**** and after a while nothing ends up working.

Bednar has 1 year left after this one. GMs don't usually keep 'lame-duck' coaches around in the last year of their deals. They are either extended or they are replaced. I'd bet on the latter happening right at the end of this season with the Avs bringing in a veteran coach to take them to the next level.

* Secondary scoring could use a significant boost. Our best options beyond the top line are all 24 and younger. That's usually not a great recipe for success. I think Bednar could have come up with different combinations that could have been successful like 6 weeks ago but now I just don't think it matters.

My anticipation is that Sakic is looking at building not just a decent 2nd line but a fantastic. So acquiring a guy like Hayes doesn't fit the bill but players like Stone or Panarin actually would, if they'd be open to signing with us.

* Goaltending hasn't won us a lot of games this year...those guys can be better than they have been but for whatever reason, they just haven't been good enough. If our own pick ends up in the Top-10, we might have a shot at the best goalie in the draft which could make the difference down the line.

* Defense hasn't been great on most nights. The first 2 months of the year, everyone seemed in-sync and played cohesively but that's all gone now. Hell, after the first 2 weeks of the season I remember thinking that Girard was gonna put up 30-40 points if he kept his play up - he's gone so far away from that player it's ridiculous and it's mostly just a confidence thing but I do wonder what they are saying to him when he gets back to the bench after a tough shift. (anyone catch Pratt barking at Girard but he wasn't even looking at him yesterday?)

I think in time Makar and Timmins will do wonders for us but I also think that an overhaul of the coaching staff will provide the guys we do have in place with some new life.

All in all, I think being a seller and having 2 high picks in this years draft would be amazing for this team, since we can't win with our holes or this coaching staff anyways.

As I mentioned before, I would hope that with some of the players that we jettison that we would not only target draft picks but up and coming players (like a kid like Connor Ingram - just an example).

I think a lot of the teams struggles from the young guys is being made worse by a lack of confidence because of the goaltending. Yeah they're probably going to have highs and lows from being young, but especially someone like Girard has way more pressure on his shoulders playing such a big role in front of shit goalies and on a team that expects to make the playoffs.

I do think if they had found a way to stop the bleeding back in December we'd see different games from some of these young guys. The only logical thing to do was try Frank and they made a clear choice not to give him a start against a mid to lower level team.

So yeah, it's hard to call for the unicorn right now, but I do believe there was a time when it was valid.

At this point I'd even try Martin since Frank is injured. Wtf is there to lose?

 

[AllAboutAvs]

Martin has been doing pretty well in his last 5-6 games except for when he came in relief for Francouz's injury.

 

[Pokecheque]

Bring up Martin!!!! At the very least we'd see those awesome mountain pads of his again.

 

[AvsFan29]

At the end of November the Avalanche were 1 point back of Nashville for 1st in the west. Since then...

- Avs have given up the 3rd least shots against in the NHL.
- Avs have given up 2nd least scoring chances in the NHL.
- Avs have given up 2nd most goals against.
- Avs have the lowest save percentage in the league.

It’s pretty clearly that goaltending is the issue here.

In 2019 it gets even crazier.

- least shot attempts against in NHL
- least high danger shot attempts against
- least scoring chances against
- 10th in goals for (they’re still scoring goals despite people thinking they aren’t)
- highest corsi for% in the NHL.
- .845sv% LOL

The Avs are preventing shots against. Preventing teams from getting to the dangerous areas of the ice. Outshooting teams every night. Scoring more than 2/3rds of the league. The goaltenders just can’t make a save.

The Avs are dominating hockey games and still losing every night. There’s been just 3 games since December 29 that the Avs reached .900sv% goaltending. The Colorado Avalanche are basically the polar opposite of Patrick Roy’s Colorado Avalanche

___

Here ya go, courtesy of Cousin Eddie.

Fire Bednar, immediately.

 

[the_fan]

At the end of November the Avalanche were 1 point back of Nashville for 1st in the west. Since then...

- Avs have given up the 3rd least shots against in the NHL.
- Avs have given up 2nd least scoring chances in the NHL.
- Avs have given up 2nd most goals against.
- Avs have the lowest save percentage in the league.

It’s pretty clearly that goaltending is the issue here.

In 2019 it gets even crazier.

- least shot attempts against in NHL
- least high danger shot attempts against
- least scoring chances against
- 10th in goals for (they’re still scoring goals despite people thinking they aren’t)
- highest corsi for% in the NHL.
- .845sv% LOL

The Avs are preventing shots against. Preventing teams from getting to the dangerous areas of the ice. Outshooting teams every night. Scoring more than 2/3rds of the league. The goaltenders just can’t make a save.

The Avs are dominating hockey games and still losing every night. There’s been just 3 games since December 29 that the Avs reached .900sv% goaltending. The Colorado Avalanche are basically the polar opposite of Patrick Roy’s Colorado Avalanche

___

Here ya go, courtesy of Cousin Eddie.

Ultimately it all comes down to the team losing confidence. No one trusts each other, team has no confidence in goalies and vice versa

 

[Pokecheque]

Ultimately it all comes down to the team losing confidence. No one trusts each other, team has no confidence in goalies and vice versa

Agreed. Everyone out there is trying to do it all by himself, hence that ridiculous pinch by Cole last night that led to the 2-on-1. I sure as hell hope Pratt gave him an earful after that.

 

[Nalens Oga]

I don't trust this board at all tbh.

Back in 2016-17, we were playing like dogshit and people were going on about how the coaching is fine and it's a team issue.

Now we're playing generally well and people are complaining about coaching?

If you'd fired Bednar after 2016-17 then it would've been acceptable but you can't really pin dogshit goaltending on him and a lack of scorers, that's the GM's duty. I wonder at times if some of you are even watching the same game. We were outplaying the Canucks for good chunks of the game yesterday, especially in the 1st period. True they got deflated after goal 3 but people on here during the 1st intermission were going on about how awful they look when they looked great especially considering the long layoff, it's just Markstrom was good and Varly was not.

 

[Vaslof]

I don't trust this board at all tbh.

Back in 2016-17, we were playing like dog**** and people were going on about how the coaching is fine and it's a team issue.

Now we're playing generally well and people are complaining about coaching?

If you'd fired Bednar after 2016-17 then it would've been acceptable but you can't really pin dog**** goaltending on him and a lack of scorers, that's the GM's duty. I wonder at times if some of you are even watching the same game. We were outplaying the Canucks for good chunks of the game yesterday, especially in the 1st period. True they got deflated after goal 3 but people on here during the 1st intermission were going on about how awful they look when they looked great especially considering the long layoff, it's just Markstrom was good and Varly was not.

For me ultimately the coach is responsible on how well the team performs. It's true that we are still missing key players to be able to contend, but is our roster the worst one in the entire league? I don't think it is. But we've been the worst team in the entire league for 2 months now. Slumps happen too, but it's been far too long now to be just a slump. It's turning into a disaster season, and not the first one under Bednar.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Agreed. Everyone out there is trying to do it all by himself, hence that ridiculous pinch by Cole last night that led to the 2-on-1. I sure as hell hope Pratt gave him an earful after that.

Thing is Cole didnt learn from that. Later in the game he did something similiar but the Nucks werent able to make that pass for a potential 2 on 1. Cole is garbage. He was so damn solid the first few months then fell off a cliff during and since the game in Pittsburgh.

 

[CobraAcesS]

Thing is Cole didnt learn from that. Later in the game he did something similiar but the Nucks werent able to make that pass for a potential 2 on 1. Cole is garbage. He was so damn solid the first few months then fell off a cliff during and since the game in Pittsburgh.

Bednar wants everyone to push the play and take chances though. Our guys have made enough comments about that in the past. We were warned that when Cole gets the idea into his head that hes a PMD it goes bad, and that he seems to go through cycles with it. Very good when hes focused on being a steady stay at home guy who makes a good first pass, but when the guy is trying to create offense he causes more problems.

I think it is kind of the same thing with Calvert's start with us. Someone put it into his head that he had more offensive upside, and all he did was over handle the puck. Lately Calvert has went back to the player I remember on CBJ with a fairly simple game that is all work ethic all the time. Which is what made him a fan favorite.

When these bottom of the roster guys get it in their head they can do more it is pretty infuriating. Mitchell suffered from this, and so did Comeau at times. Which is one thing I loved about Matthias when we got him. The guy played to his strengths and kept it simple.

 

[The Merchant]

At the end of November the Avalanche were 1 point back of Nashville for 1st in the west. Since then...

- Avs have given up the 3rd least shots against in the NHL.
- Avs have given up 2nd least scoring chances in the NHL.
- Avs have given up 2nd most goals against.
- Avs have the lowest save percentage in the league.

It’s pretty clearly that goaltending is the issue here.

In 2019 it gets even crazier.

- least shot attempts against in NHL
- least high danger shot attempts against
- least scoring chances against
- 10th in goals for (they’re still scoring goals despite people thinking they aren’t)
- highest corsi for% in the NHL.
- .845sv% LOL

The Avs are preventing shots against. Preventing teams from getting to the dangerous areas of the ice. Outshooting teams every night. Scoring more than 2/3rds of the league. The goaltenders just can’t make a save.

The Avs are dominating hockey games and still losing every night. There’s been just 3 games since December 29 that the Avs reached .900sv% goaltending. The Colorado Avalanche are basically the polar opposite of Patrick Roy’s Colorado Avalanche

___

Here ya go, courtesy of Cousin Eddie.

Quoted for f***ing truth

 

[R2daV]

Still no Francouz call up eh.....How silly will Sakic look when he leaves to another team this summer...

 

[AllAboutAvs]

Still no Francouz call up eh.....How silly will Sakic look when he leaves to another team this summer...

Francouz is currently hurt.

 

[R2daV]

Francouz is currently hurt.

Well damn, guess we're stuck with watching these two for a little while longer

 

[AvsFan29]

Well damn, guess we're stuck with watching these two for a little while longer

I wouldn't get too excited for Francouz to replace either of our goalies. He could, but the odds are slim at best.

 

[UncleRisto]

I don't trust this board at all tbh.

Back in 2016-17, we were playing like dog**** and people were going on about how the coaching is fine and it's a team issue.

Now we're playing generally well and people are complaining about coaching?

If you'd fired Bednar after 2016-17 then it would've been acceptable but you can't really pin dog**** goaltending on him and a lack of scorers, that's the GM's duty. I wonder at times if some of you are even watching the same game. We were outplaying the Canucks for good chunks of the game yesterday, especially in the 1st period. True they got deflated after goal 3 but people on here during the 1st intermission were going on about how awful they look when they looked great especially considering the long layoff, it's just Markstrom was good and Varly was not.

Consider the average length of a coaching tenure here.

 

[Soedy]

At the end of November the Avalanche were 1 point back of Nashville for 1st in the west. Since then...

- Avs have given up the 3rd least shots against in the NHL.
- Avs have given up 2nd least scoring chances in the NHL.
- Avs have given up 2nd most goals against.
- Avs have the lowest save percentage in the league.

It’s pretty clearly that goaltending is the issue here.

In 2019 it gets even crazier.

- least shot attempts against in NHL
- least high danger shot attempts against
- least scoring chances against
- 10th in goals for (they’re still scoring goals despite people thinking they aren’t)
- highest corsi for% in the NHL.
- .845sv% LOL

The Avs are preventing shots against. Preventing teams from getting to the dangerous areas of the ice. Outshooting teams every night. Scoring more than 2/3rds of the league. The goaltenders just can’t make a save.

The Avs are dominating hockey games and still losing every night. There’s been just 3 games since December 29 that the Avs reached .900sv% goaltending. The Colorado Avalanche are basically the polar opposite of Patrick Roy’s Colorado Avalanche

___

Here ya go, courtesy of Cousin Eddie.

My god.

 

[CB Joe]

I wouldn't get too excited for Francouz to replace either of our goalies. He could, but the odds are slim at best.

Maybe but it's still worth a try.

 

[Bender]

I think a lot of the teams struggles from the young guys is being made worse by a lack of confidence because of the goaltending. Yeah they're probably going to have highs and lows from being young, but especially someone like Girard has way more pressure on his shoulders playing such a big role in front of **** goalies and on a team that expects to make the playoffs.

I do think if they had found a way to stop the bleeding back in December we'd see different games from some of these young guys. The only logical thing to do was try Frank and they made a clear choice not to give him a start against a mid to lower level team.

So yeah, it's hard to call for the unicorn right now, but I do believe there was a time when it was valid.

At this point I'd even try Martin since Frank is injured. Wtf is there to lose?

For those posting aggregate stats and stuff - yeah that's all fine and good but what that won't show you is a team starting a game pretty well and then having an idiot cause a 2-on-1 and have your team play from behind from the get-go. It won't show you Compher losing a defensive zone faceoff that results in a sharp-shooter like Boeser sticking it bar-down (nice goal - that's tough to stop) and it certainly won't show Barrie's half-assed effort at chasing a guy behind his own net only to have him pass it to an open guy in front and then it's 3-0. [I should add - Mack's effort at covering the guy in front was probably even worse than Barrie's]

It would be awesome if our goaltenders could stand on their heads and steal a game here and there but to solely blame them for our losing streak is highly inaccurate.

Stat munchers - why don't you look up how many LEADS this team has given our goaltenders since the start of December? It's not always a 'bad goal' that makes us fall behind in games...sometimes it's a PP and sometimes our goalies don't have a chance.

In my general estimation, if we had adequate goaltending since the start of December, we'd probably still only have a .500 record over that span of time so it's not like we'd be killing it or anything.

I agree with you that we should have given Francouz a shot at some point but I believe that if the Avs are going to be sellers that some team is going to take a chance on Varly for goaltending depth. (NYI? Tor?)

 

[Bender]

For me ultimately the coach is responsible on how well the team performs. It's true that we are still missing key players to be able to contend, but is our roster the worst one in the entire league? I don't think it is. But we've been the worst team in the entire league for 2 months now. Slumps happen too, but it's been far too long now to be just a slump. It's turning into a disaster season, and not the first one under Bednar.

When you really take a step back and look at it - over the course of 2.5 seasons - we've either been absolutely horrible or we've been really, really good during stretches. Very rarely are we just in the middle.

2016-17 - All horrible, all the time
2017-18 - Decent to start the season / Duchene trade -> we lit it up for 3 months -> then we sputtered into the playoffs with our only hope was having the Blues be as bad or worse then us [wins were hard to come by last year in March/April] -> the team played well and very hard in the playoffs
2018-19 - We lit it up for 2 months -> we've been terrible ever since

Seems to me like when this team is playing at it's best and winning, it's pretty much because the Top Line is scoring at an absurd rate and MacKinnon is playing like an MVP.

Sorry but for me, that's not good coaching. One line playing out of their minds or else we're terrible? Sure we have holes in our lineup but so do a lot of other teams. We have good talent on our team already and it should be enough to make the playoffs.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

At the end of November the Avalanche were 1 point back of Nashville for 1st in the west. Since then...

- Avs have given up the 3rd least shots against in the NHL.
- Avs have given up 2nd least scoring chances in the NHL.
- Avs have given up 2nd most goals against.
- Avs have the lowest save percentage in the league.

It’s pretty clearly that goaltending is the issue here.

In 2019 it gets even crazier.

- least shot attempts against in NHL
- least high danger shot attempts against
- least scoring chances against
- 10th in goals for (they’re still scoring goals despite people thinking they aren’t)
- highest corsi for% in the NHL.
- .845sv% LOL

The Avs are preventing shots against. Preventing teams from getting to the dangerous areas of the ice. Outshooting teams every night. Scoring more than 2/3rds of the league. The goaltenders just can’t make a save.

The Avs are dominating hockey games and still losing every night. There’s been just 3 games since December 29 that the Avs reached .900sv% goaltending. The Colorado Avalanche are basically the polar opposite of Patrick Roy’s Colorado Avalanche

___

Here ya go, courtesy of Cousin Eddie.

Insane statistics! Wow.

 

[Ivan13]

For those posting aggregate stats and stuff - yeah that's all fine and good but what that won't show you is a team starting a game pretty well and then having an idiot cause a 2-on-1 and have your team play from behind from the get-go. It won't show you Compher losing a defensive zone faceoff that results in a sharp-shooter like Boeser sticking it bar-down (nice goal - that's tough to stop) and it certainly won't show Barrie's half-assed effort at chasing a guy behind his own net only to have him pass it to an open guy in front and then it's 3-0. [I should add - Mack's effort at covering the guy in front was probably even worse than Barrie's]

It would be awesome if our goaltenders could stand on their heads and steal a game here and there but to solely blame them for our losing streak is highly inaccurate.

Stat munchers - why don't you look up how many LEADS this team has given our goaltenders since the start of December? It's not always a 'bad goal' that makes us fall behind in games...sometimes it's a PP and sometimes our goalies don't have a chance.

In my general estimation, if we had adequate goaltending since the start of December, we'd probably still only have a .500 record over that span of time so it's not like we'd be killing it or anything.

I agree with you that we should have given Francouz a shot at some point but I believe that if the Avs are going to be sellers that some team is going to take a chance on Varly for goaltending depth. (NYI? Tor?)

There have been defensive breakdowns for sure, and aggregate numbers sure don't tell the whole story, but you just can't justify having a save percentage being that low. Wouldn't you say that this team is playing far more defensively sound hockey than some earlier editions of the Avalanche and that the talent is also better, but the goaltenders are playing about as poor as we've ever seen an Avalanche goalie do?

Other teams make mistakes as well, it is impossible to play perfect hockey night in and night out, and given that the team needs to play a virtually perfect game with no defensive breakdowns in order to win, getting wins is almost an impossible feat. Let's take the Ottawa Senators as an example, they play a brand of hockey that throws caution to the wind, they are all offense all the time, their defenseman are being played in roles they have no business playing, their forwards (notable exceptions like Stone notwithstanding) provide little if any defensive support and structure, yet their goalies all put up stats far better than their Avs counterparts did over the last couple of months, with their starters Anderson, Nilsson, and McKenna having save percentages of 90.5%, 92.25 and 89.7% respectively. Nilsson, a journeyman, has a save percentage 8% higher than our two guys have combined for since the start of December.

 

[Ivan13]

Next 6 games will be fun, we are playing the 11th, 7th, 18th, 22nd, 6th and 4th best offenses in the league.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Blaming Bednar lol.

He has legit turned this team into a team that completely shelters our goaltenders while still managing to score goals at a top 10 rate.

I don’t agree with some decisions (splitting the top line up and playing Barbario in any situation) but Bednar has done everything within his authority to make the best out of what he has.