GDT: GAME ONE of 2019: Slumps vs. Sharks

[Pokecheque]

Can we at least beat Ottawa in their barn?

Not right now, no.

 

[Pokecheque]

My concern with Grubauer is not necessarily his own play, which was okay beyond that horrendous goal given up to Kane (which was still mostly on Barrie...even he admitted it), my concern is that this team plays scared whenever he's on the ice.

Give Frankie some starts. Gotta start doing some crazy things now to try and right the ship. This wait-it-out approach is not working. Work Grubauer in however you can but I think right now, as far as the team is concerned, he's damaged goods. He'll have to earn the confidence of the team back, which is shaken badly overall, but they clearly just don't believe in him.

I don't know how many ways and how many times it has to be said. Gabriel Bourque is completely and utterly useless. He whiffed on two clearing attempts on two different PKs and it literally ended up in the net shortly thereafter. He's not scoring, not forechecking well, not playing defense, and he's not doing jack shit killing penalties. WAIVE. HIM. NOW.

No idea what to do with Erik Johnson at this point. There's no viable alternative with Z hurt, Barrie's complete roller-coaster play, and Sammy looking like he'd rather be anywhere but the rink. He HAS to be the guy, but right now, he isn't. I guess I should give him credit for making up for the horrid read he had on the 1st goal against and making certain they didn't score from there again on the man-advantage.

 

[Metallo]

I think you nailed it. We know what Varly brings. So far Grubauer has been very average. I think it should be Frank's turn to show us what he's got.

I think at the beginning of the year the hope was for Grubauer to prove to be a number 1 so we could move on from Varly. I think it has now shifted to we just want the two best guys in here next season. If that is Varly and Grubauer then great. If that's Grubauer and Frank great. It could even be Varly and Frank or Frank and a different person.

I don't think Sakic much cares, he just wants consistency from the position. He knows he can resign Varly at a reasonable rate if he needs to. He also knows that he could probably move either one of Varly or Grubauer if that's what is best.

At the end of the day he is going to find a combo that works.

Exactly. The way I see it, the No1 job is up for grabs. Let’s see who out of the 3 wants it the most.

 

[Avs425]

 

[Avs_19]

When I watched the presser last night, I took this as some shade being thrown Grubauer's way along with the praise for Francouz.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

Francouz needs to start a game. Bednar has nothing to lose.

 

[PAZ]

When I watched the presser last night, I took this as some shade being thrown Grubauer's way along with the praise for Francouz.

Eh, Bednar isn't the type of coach to throw shade. He was simply praising Francouz.

Grubs had a bad game and hasn't looked ready to take the starting job, I think it's pretty fair to say that Francouz might get a start.

 

[forsbergavs32]

Yeah, I’m guessing Frank starts Friday. He’s looked good in relief twice and deserves a real look with neither Varly or Grub looking good right now (especially if they’re looking at keeping Frank beyond this year).

 

[Pokecheque]

About the only times he's called out a player is when it's a blatantly obvious show of ineptitude, like Mikko taking too long to get off the ice and not covering Brown in OT the other night, to Grubby's bad night in Vancouver, to last season when Sasha Barkov took Sam Girard by surprise when the Avs were retrieving an iced puck on the power play and scored a SHG.

I hope Frankie gets a start, even if Varly is somehow healthy. They have to do something radically different at this point.

 

[Foppa2118]

Avs are in a downward spiral right now. Getting totally outplayed in games only to wake up and find their game in the 3rd period every night. Even if they would have managed another point in this one, that is just not acceptable. Bednar needs to figure this out. Lack of depth is an issue but that's not an excuse for this. They managed to put up a bunch of wins with the same exact roster earlier in the year.

Not sure why the hell Bednar left Jost on the bench for the 6 on 5 in favor of Kerfoot who had a terrible game. Jost had the hot stick for once and could have been in position in front of the net for that rebound that Compher missed because he's a righty.

Seeing Pavelski get away with two handed slashes after almost every face-off, Jones slash Kerfoot after the Sharks take a penalty, and the same with Dillon taking out Kerfoot's leg after his penalty, and not see any of those get called was a little frustrating. Not that it had anything to do with the loss.

Looking forward to seeing Francouz again next game. He's earned it for sure.

 

[Avs_19]

Eh, Bednar isn't the type of coach to throw shade. He was simply praising Francouz.

Grubs had a bad game and hasn't looked ready to take the starting job, I think it's pretty fair to say that Francouz might get a start.

Maybe but two of the issues we've seen with Grubauer that have been mentioned here a number of times are him having trouble finding the puck through traffic at times and seemingly giving up on some plays where he appears to be out of position or after making the original save. Those two things then just happen to be what Bednar compliments Francouz for in his presser.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Eh, Bednar isn't the type of coach to throw shade. He was simply praising Francouz.

Grubs had a bad game and hasn't looked ready to take the starting job, I think it's pretty fair to say that Francouz might get a start.

It was a subtle jab. He did it earlier to Grubs aswell. That's how I took it anyways. The blame shouldn't be on Grubs last night.

 

[The Kingslayer]

About the only times he's called out a player is when it's a blatantly obvious show of ineptitude, like Mikko taking too long to get off the ice and not covering Brown in OT the other night, to Grubby's bad night in Vancouver, to last season when Sasha Barkov took Sam Girard by surprise when the Avs were retrieving an iced puck on the power play and scored a SHG.

I hope Frankie gets a start, even if Varly is somehow healthy. They have to do something radically different at this point.

Someone said it earlier but the guys do seem to play a different game when Grubs is in net. Tense, less confident etc. Be interesting to see how they play in front of Francouz from start to finish and I really do hope Frank gets the net on Friday regardless if Varly is healthy.

 

[Foppa2118]

It was a subtle jab. He did it earlier to Grubs aswell. That's how I took it anyways. The blame shouldn't be on Grubs last night.

Blame shouldn't be on him but he looked shaky again. Rebound control was poor on multiple saves early and he was flopping around a bit too much.

Wasn't helped by Barrie's terrible turnover and screen on Kane's goal, but he wasn't ready for it either. He didn't go down to the butterly until after the puck went over his shoulder and in the net.

 

[dahrougem2]

These last 12 games have felt so much like 16-17 it's downright scary.

Things could get out of hand here if they're not careful.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Blame shouldn't be on him but he looked shaky again. Rebound control was poor on multiple saves early and he was flopping around a bit too much.

Wasn't helped by Barrie's terrible turnover and screen on Kane's goal, but he wasn't ready for it either. He didn't go down to the butterly until after the puck went over his shoulder and in the net.

Agreed plenty of blame to go around last night. Bork, Cole, Girard, Barrie were terrible.

 

[Avs_19]

These last 12 games have felt so much like 16-17 it's downright scary.

Things could get out of hand here if they're not careful.

Not for me. Only three of the losses have been by more than one goal in the last 12 if you exclude empty netters. They even outplayed the other team in a couple of the losses but were letdown by brutal goaltending. In 16-17 they just got hit with a sledgehammer game after game.

 

[hooverdam]

These last 12 games have felt so much like 16-17 it's downright scary.

Things could get out of hand here if they're not careful.

The underlying numbers have not been nearly as bad. That 16-17 team just got caved in on every level every single night. The Avs have deserved to win in several of these losses and have shot themselves in the foot with stupid mistakes.

There's a difference between a good team making mistakes and playing poorly, going through a run of horrible luck, and a bad team playing exactly as poorly as you would expect it to. This year's Avs are in the first category right now.

The scary part is letting that combination of bad luck/stupid mistakes snowball and turn into something unmanageable, so I get this feeling.