GDT: Stares vs Aves(yes I'm bringing it back) 7PM MST

[chet1926]

We all knew going into the year that one the bigger questions was about goaltending. It's going to be really sad when we miss the playoffs by just a little because we can't buy timely saves.

Sad part is there really aren't many viable options out there and the only guy in the system showing promise is at least 3 years out in Annunen.

Not sure what we can do at this point. Just hope one them figures something out.

 

[obZen]

We all knew going into the year that one the bigger questions was about goaltending. It's going to be really sad when we miss the playoffs by just a little because we can't buy timely saves.

Sad part is there really aren't many viable options out there and the only guy in the system showing promise is at least 3 years out in Annunen.

Not sure what we can do at this point. Just hope one them figures something out.

Adam Werner

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

It's all doom and gloom in here. Calling for bednars head seems like an emotional knee jerk reaction to a disappointing end to the game. Bednar is super hockey smart and his schemes and plays are good. That first period showed it. The guys came out fired up, well drilled and absolutely dominated the period. It's not bednars fault that the boys seem to be a little weak between the ears when the inevitable swings in momentum happen. No team will dominate the stars for 60 minutes, so the guys just need to hold it together when goals are scored, or momentum changes. Maybe the team needs a sports psychologist to help the guys. I don't see these issues being on bednar.

The only coaches who should be worried for their jobs are special teams. They are all garbage.

 

[missionAvs]

This game sucks. We had it. We outplayed them for the vast majority of it. Bishop stood on his head and made the saves. Gru did not. Is he the only reason we lost? No, but he was the difference last night. This team is very disappointing. I don't think we win a game until after the all star break to be honest and can see us fighting for that second wildcard spot from there to the end.

 

[TanguaySauce]

Bishop won that game for Dallas more than we lost it. To be honest with you, if as a unit, we give that kind of performance every night, there aren't many games that we'll lose.

Just so happens that we ran into a hot team, with an even hotter PP unit and a goalie that requires extra precision to beat. 40+ shots, 3 posts (or was it 4?), and a goal saved at the line was just bad luck. Eventually, those bounces will go our way.

Grubauer did "fine" for the most part. I don't blame him for the first goal since he did a good enough job stopping that first shot from point blank and no one on the defense wanted to step up and hit Dickinson before he could get the rebound. The second goal is harder to stop than it's being made out to be. Yes, Grub probably couldve gotten just a sliver of it, but Mack went for broke trying to get that breakaway with the puck in Lindell's skates.

That being said, when I think we should play Frank, we play Grub and lose, and vice versa. Everyone will say Frank should play against San Jose but I think we should go right back to Grub and give him a softer matchup against an even more garbage goalie in Jones to hopefully right the ship.

Oh and fire the special teams coach.

 

[henchman21]

I don't think Grubs played poorly, but he didn't play great either. To me goaltending wasn't the main issue, it was the PK. The Avs need a PK forward and a PK defensemen (or accept risk and run Makar there). The Avs don't seemingly want to muck it up offensively either. Dirty areas and ugly goals are not really on their mind.

 

[Galactico]

Lot of Avs fans were arrogant when the Taylor Hall trade discussions were going on saying that we absolutely did not need a player like him and that we could win it all with our current roster. I knew this would backfire, we were in prime position to acquire him and could have easily beaten Arizona’s offer. Not saying we should have gutted our farm team for him, but he would have definitely made an impact on our team.

We are 4-7-3 since the trade.

 

[Kaizer]

Remember when the last time Avs won 3 games in a row?
Pepperidge farm remembers.

 

[henchman21]

Lot of Avs fans were arrogant when the Taylor Hall trade discussions were going on saying that we absolutely did not need a player like him and that we could win it all with our current roster. I knew this would backfire, we were in prime position to acquire him and could have easily beaten Arizona’s offer. Not saying we should have gutted our farm team for him, but he would have definitely made an impact on our team.

We are 4-7-3 since the trade.

I've said this time and time again... it would have taken Byram to have swung the deal in the Avs' favor. Nobody here should be wishing that. The Avs need to go after JGP hard and see if they can find an upgrade on defense.

 

[larueskee]

Anytime you play 60 minutes and only give up 2 goals you should come out with a win. With that said I have a hard time calling out the defense or the goaltender. I did like that EJ saw much reduced ice time but he still walked away with a minus., Graves ice time per shift was a little high and that can throw some things out of whack, but everyone seemed to be on the same page on defense. With the difference in this game a powerplay goal I went to check the stats. The Avs are 2nd in the league in powerplay opportunities but 18th in converting those opportunities. I was just arguing with someone about Bennet last week or so and was told he had them in the top 10 but all I remember about him was he never practiced powerplays. That might have been more about Hitchcock but 18th is unacceptable when the only difference between last year and this is Cale Makar.

 

[Galactico]

I've said this time and time again... it would have taken Byram to have swung the deal in the Avs' favor. Nobody here should be wishing that. The Avs need to go after JGP hard and see if they can find an upgrade on defense.

Did you see the package NJ got for Hall? No way Byram was needed to be in the deal to beat the offer.

 

[henchman21]

Did you see the package NJ got for Hall? No way Byram was needed to be in the deal to beat the offer.

New Jersey was after the best defensive prospect they could get and get a guaranteed first. Not my personal feeling, but most hockey people Bahl > any Avs defensive prospect not named Byram. Therefore, you don't get Hall without Byram. Timmins +1st + Conditional wouldn't have gotten it done.

 

[kl35ha]

Under Roy this team fall apart the last two months of the season; if they would have won at least 2 games out of the last ten they would have make the playoffs the 3/4 years under him.

Under Bednar is around Thanksgivings till around the end of January but still manage to make the playoffs...will they get lucky this year?!

This stupid long streak of sucking need to stop!

 

[henchman21]

Under Roy this team fall apart the last two months of the season; if they would have won at least 2 games out of the last ten they would have make the playoffs the 3/4 years under him.

Under Bednar is around Thanksgivings till around the end of January but still manage to make the playoffs...will they get lucky this year?!

This stupid long streak of sucking need to stop!

There is a saying... defense raises your floor, offense gets rings. The Avs defense isn't good enough to consistently keep their floor high.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

Typical Bednar time of the year. Hopefully, the trend continues and the team gets hot before the playoffs.

 

[henchman21]

Typical Bednar time of the year. Hopefully, the trend continues and the team gets hot before the playoffs.

I think Bednar is great at coming up with an effective gameplan and how to create as solid structure... he is utterly terrible at adjusting. He will eventually adjust and the team will right the ship, but these will happen as teams attack them differently after some film time.

 

[the_fan]

It's all doom and gloom in here. Calling for bednars head seems like an emotional knee jerk reaction to a disappointing end to the game. Bednar is super hockey smart and his schemes and plays are good. That first period showed it. The guys came out fired up, well drilled and absolutely dominated the period. It's not bednars fault that the boys seem to be a little weak between the ears when the inevitable swings in momentum happen. No team will dominate the stars for 60 minutes, so the guys just need to hold it together when goals are scored, or momentum changes. Maybe the team needs a sports psychologist to help the guys. I don't see these issues being on bednar.

The only coaches who should be worried for their jobs are special teams. They are all garbage.

I'd be willing to hold on to Bednar and change the assistant coaches and change the goalie coach also, but those are the assistants Bednar chose, I'm not sure if he would like to bring new ones. Pratt runs that PK, start right there, get rid of him and bring a new guy who actually knows what defense is because that PK loses bunch of games for this team. And look what that goalie coach is doing for the Isles, maybe Avs need a new guy there too.

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

I'd be willing to hold on to Bednar and change the assistant coaches and change the goalie coach also, but those are the assistants Bednar chose, I'm not sure if he would like to bring new ones. Pratt runs that PK, start right there, get rid of him and bring a new guy who actually knows what defense is because that PK loses bunch of games for this team. And look what that goalie coach is doing for the Isles, maybe Avs need a new guy there too.

Right. We're top of the league, or thereabouts, in 5-on-5. Bednar is very good at what he does, I think we need to can those around him - I don't know whether thats a Bednar or Sakic decision. It is embarrassing how bad our PP and PK are and missing out on a goal scored, or preventing a goal against, per game changes our record pretty significantly. We're not being blown out, these are close games that our special teams are losing for us. Bednar is still the best coach we've had in years. He's not perfect, but he is damn good.

 

[dahrougem2]

Terrible drop by the linesmen on the OT winner. Pavelski cheats on the face-off and just leaves his stick there blocking Landy's. Then the linesman waits and essentially just hands the puck to Pavelski and they score. Awful play by the linesman.
.

Linesmen to me more than the referees pick and choose favourites. Can't nobody tell me linesmen around the league don't actively look forward to tossing Nazem Kadri from faceoffs to send him a message.

He does nothing differently than any of the other top centres at faceoffs in the league, yet he is constantly tossed. Meanwhile Joe Pavelski, a dude who is known around the league as an egregious cheater on faceoffs, just stands in there like it's nothing and the linesmen doesn't even bother to look at his stick or body position or anything.

Just ridiculous. The NHL has a big time officiating problem and linesmen are just as big a part of the problem.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Was last night Nazem Kadri’s worst game in an Avs uniform? Man he was terrible. To top it off the puck seemed to be following him all night but he never did anything useful with it. That line had a few monster shifts but it was because of Burakovsky and Nuke. Kadri killed momentum over and over.

 

[JLo217]

While I don't think it's necessarily time for Bednar to go, I do think it's time to start looking at the other staff. The PK and PP are atrocious right now. I think the Assistant coaches could use some shuffling. If they miss the PO's thats when I'd say Bednars time is up.

 

[dahrougem2]

Was last night Nazem Kadri’s worst game in an Avs uniform? Man he was terrible. To top it off the puck seemed to be following him all night but he never did anything useful with it. That line had a few monster shifts but it was because of Burakovsky and Nuke. Kadri killed momentum over and over.

I thought his only good shift was when he out-muscled Jamie Benn to the net and hit the cross bar.

He looked slower than slow throughout, though.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

I thought his only good shift was when he out-muscled Jamie Benn to the net and hit the cross bar.

He looked slower than slow throughout, though.

I can’t help but wonder if Kadri is actually a winger being disguised as a centre. He needs to be the puck carrier when he’s on the ice but always tries to force entries through the middle of the ice all by himself. He needs to use his walls and his wingers or he needs to be a winger imo.

 

[The Kingslayer]

I would love to blame Grubs for last night but he gave one bad goal which was the first one same with Bishop. The team cannot collapse defensively because as seen last night it only takes one bad play or coverage in our own zone to make us pay. One thing is clear the team needs to play 60 minute games, get better in faceoffs (killers in OT and late 3rd) and for the love of god do something with the powerplay. With the players we have it's a freaking mystery that we s*** in PP ffs we are 18th while teams like the Habs, Sabres and Yotes are ahead of us. On paper this should be one of the most lethal PP but clearly something isn't working I think they are just way too predictable.

Which goal was considered bad by Bishop?

 

[dahrougem2]

I can’t help but wonder if Kadri is actually a winger being disguised as a centre. He needs to be the puck carrier when he’s on the ice but always tries to force entries through the middle of the ice all by himself. He needs to use his walls and his wingers or he needs to be a winger imo.

Which is crazy to think because I agree, but every time he played wing in Toronto I thought he looked like a pile of ****.