Series Talk: WCSF: Colorado Avalanche (C3) vs Dallas Stars (C1) | Stars win 4-2

[henchman21]

I would agree this series, I would disagree in the Vegas series. That team was done in by poor goaltending in games 5 and 6. They dictated play in both games.

Games - Natural Stat Trick

Analytics wise, game 6 was a toss up and game 5 was decidedly tilted to the Avs. So yeah goaltending played a role there, it played a role in this series too. Part of coaching is catering the gameplan to win. DeBoer knows if he can limit the dangerous chances, the Avs' don't typically hav ea guy in net who won't be leaky since they can't really afford top guys. That's good coaching.

xGF% the Avs/Vegas series went: 72%, 52%, 26%, 33%, 64%, 51%

xGF% in this series went: 55%, 41%, 41%, 27%, 46%, 39%

It is the same trend. Avs came out strong, then wilted before a push back when it was desperation time.

DeBoer's coaching was fantastic in this series. He made the right adjustments to make it where it would be tough for the Avs to score more than 3 goals while knowing his chances of scoring 3 or more were high. Bednar needs to find a way to get the Avs to attack the middle when plan A doesn't work. Part of it is on players just not doing it, part of it is a gameplan.

 

[dahrougem2]

Games - Natural Stat Trick

Analytics wise, game 6 was a toss up and game 5 was decidedly tilted to the Avs. So yeah goaltending played a role there, it played a role in this series too. Part of coaching is catering the gameplan to win. DeBoer knows if he can limit the dangerous chances, the Avs' don't typically hav ea guy in net who won't be leaky since they can't really afford top guys. That's good coaching.

xGF% the Avs/Vegas series went: 72%, 52%, 26%, 33%, 64%, 51%

xGF% in this series went: 55%, 41%, 41%, 27%, 46%, 39%

It is the same trend. Avs came out strong, then wilted before a push back when it was desperation time.

DeBoer's coaching was fantastic in this series. He made the right adjustments to make it where it would be tough for the Avs to score more than 3 goals while knowing his chances of scoring 3 or more were high. Bednar needs to find a way to get the Avs to attack the middle when plan A doesn't work. Part of it is on players just not doing it, part of it is a gameplan.

I agree he outcoached him this series, though I think the human element of the Avs going into utter shock played a huge factor in them looking like a piece of trash club in games 3 and 4.

I just don't think DeBoer is doing anything all that special. The Vegas series was a 3-3 series to me in terms of games each club controlled, but Grubauer sucking in game 6 ensured it wouldn't go 7.

I won't hold it against Bednar this series for failing to break through with Zach Parise on his 2nd line and Joel Kiviranta god bless his hard work on his 3rd line.

 

[henchman21]

I agree he outcoached him this series, though I think the human element of the Avs going into utter shock played a huge factor in them looking like a piece of trash club in games 3 and 4.

I just don't think DeBoer is doing anything all that special. The Vegas series was a 3-3 series to me in terms of games each club controlled, but Grubauer sucking in game 6 ensured it wouldn't go 7.

I won't hold it against Bednar this series for failing to break through with Zach Parise on his 2nd line and Joel Kiviranta god bless his hard work on his 3rd line.

Why are you excusing game 3? 4 I understand, but 3 I don't.

I don't think he's doing anything super complicated or anything. He's just devised a plan that, if executed upon frustrates the Avs and exposes their goalies. It is clear he can limit how dangerous the Avs are and force them out of their style. Not many coaches have done that in this stretch. A few have most certainly, but it isn't a very long list.

I do think we will start seeing a ton of 1-1-3 against the Avs in the playoffs. If you stop controlled entry, the Avs have shown they won't chip and chase. If you combine that with a goalie that is good at handling the puck. You stop 95+% of the transition danger and then just have to worry about the in zone issues. Which DeBoer has shown the path to push them to the outside too.

 

[The Moops]

Just a reminder that we were 10 minutes from being up 3-0 in the Vegas series

 

[dahrougem2]

Why are you excusing game 3? 4 I understand, but 3 I don't.

I don't think he's doing anything super complicated or anything. He's just devised a plan that, if executed upon frustrates the Avs and exposes their goalies. It is clear he can limit how dangerous the Avs are and force them out of their style. Not many coaches have done that in this stretch. A few have most certainly, but it isn't a very long list.

I do think we will start seeing a ton of 1-1-3 against the Avs in the playoffs. If you stop controlled entry, the Avs have shown they won't chip and chase. If you combine that with a goalie that is good at handling the puck. You stop 95+% of the transition danger and then just have to worry about the in zone issues. Which DeBoer has shown the path to push them to the outside too.

Game 4 was the human element. Game 3 even as trash as the Avs looked they still out-chanced them, had more high danger chances and xGF at 5v5 and generally controlled play. There's only so much credit we can give to a coach. He has nothing to do with Rantanen, Makar, MacKinnon, etc fumbling pucks and missing passes. 12 high danger chances while down from their season average was still almost double that of Dallas at 5v5. Lack of execution and a very good goalie did the Avs in more IMO than Pete DeBoer.

 

[henchman21]

Game 4 was the human element. Game 3 even as trash as the Avs looked they still out-chanced them, had more high danger chances and xGF at 5v5 and generally controlled play. There's only so much credit we can give to a coach. He has nothing to do with Rantanen, Makar, MacKinnon, etc fumbling pucks and missing passes. 12 high danger chances while down from their season average was still almost double that of Dallas at 5v5. Lack of execution and a very good goalie did the Avs in more IMO than Pete DeBoer.

The pressure applied at different areas certainly has to do with some of the puck handling and the inability to complete passes. Dallas basically said you have to be perfect with your outlet and transition passes (and receptions) or you won't gain the zone with possession. Which we saw the result of that. Same in zone, they pressured and challenged them to make difficult plays to be successful in the middle.

The Avs only reached 12 once in the whole series in every situation. Despite 2 games going to OT. 11 isn't enough to score at a high rate on a goalie the quality of Otter. 5v5 they only reached double digits twice. Games 3 and 5 with 12 and 10. Only games 1 and 3 was there a high disparity 5v5 too. Those games were 9-4 and 12-7. Game 2 was 5-4, Game 4 was 9-10 and Game 6 was 8-19. The Avs had two games where they really had a significant advantage in this area. The rest of the games were either closer or in Game 6, a massive advantage to Dallas (game 4 was this way too until Dallas turtled in the 3rd).

DeBoer made the right adjustments and basically forced the Avs to be perfect to get high danger chances, and built the idea around that they could handle a lot of volume from the outside if they just kept the high danger stuff low. I simply think credit is due.

 

[Balthazar]

DeBoer made the right adjustments and basically forced the Avs to be perfect to get high danger chances, and built the idea around that they could handle a lot of volume from the outside if they just kept the high danger stuff low. I simply think credit is due.

Yes.

The way Dallas handcuffed the Avs and prevented them to play their game is all DeBoer (he has done it before).

We didn't lose because of Dallas players individual skills or because the Avs were tired or because we were missing players. We lost because we couldn't play our game despite the effort, as simple as that.

 

[dahrougem2]

The pressure applied at different areas certainly has to do with some of the puck handling and the inability to complete passes. Dallas basically said you have to be perfect with your outlet and transition passes (and receptions) or you won't gain the zone with possession. Which we saw the result of that. Same in zone, they pressured and challenged them to make difficult plays to be successful in the middle.

The Avs only reached 12 once in the whole series in every situation. Despite 2 games going to OT. 11 isn't enough to score at a high rate on a goalie the quality of Otter. 5v5 they only reached double digits twice. Games 3 and 5 with 12 and 10. Only games 1 and 3 was there a high disparity 5v5 too. Those games were 9-4 and 12-7. Game 2 was 5-4, Game 4 was 9-10 and Game 6 was 8-19. The Avs had two games where they really had a significant advantage in this area. The rest of the games were either closer or in Game 6, a massive advantage to Dallas (game 4 was this way too until Dallas turtled in the 3rd).

DeBoer made the right adjustments and basically forced the Avs to be perfect to get high danger chances, and built the idea around that they could handle a lot of volume from the outside if they just kept the high danger stuff low. I simply think credit is due.

I'm not saying don't give him credit, but I think credit is exaggerated.

Are we looking at high danger chances in terms of the Avs out-chancing teams or the Avs having to utterly dominate teams? Because if you ask most coaches if they're generating more high danger chances than the other team, they're probably giving themselves a chance to win. The Avs were also limiting the Stars high danger chances. It was an incredibly tight series. A bounce here, a break there and all of a sudden we're looking at an Avs 4-2 series win rather than a Stars win.

What I'm disagreeing with is how people talk about DeBoer like he coached a masterclass around Jared Bednar in both the Vegas and Dallas series. I do not believe that to be the case at all.

 

[henchman21]

I'm not saying don't give him credit, but I think credit is exaggerated.

Are we looking at high danger chances in terms of the Avs out-chancing teams or the Avs having to utterly dominate teams? Because if you ask most coaches if they're generating more high danger chances than the other team, they're probably giving themselves a chance to win. The Avs were also limiting the Stars high danger chances. It was an incredibly tight series. A bounce here, a break there and all of a sudden we're looking at an Avs 4-2 series win rather than a Stars win.

What I'm disagreeing with is how people talk about DeBoer like he coached a masterclass around Jared Bednar in both the Vegas and Dallas series. I do not believe that to be the case at all.

When you look at the whole series, Dallas ended up with 55% of the high danger chances in total. 5v5 it ended 50-50 after game 6 which played a big role. They only lost the total high danger chance battle in 2 games out of 6.

But chances is not what solely decides the series. Dallas' whole game plan was to simply limit the high danger chances as much as they could. They built a gameplan that was okay with the Avs having volume as long as they could keep the high danger in earshot. Doing that would allow the goaltending difference to shine through. This is the same plan that teams use to beat Carolina. Give them the shots and possession, just keep the danger down, and get enough on their goalies that you'll score 3 or more. If you do that, you can win.

It wasn't an all time great coaching performance and the system isn't some new thing (been run in Sweden since the 80s), but his coaching tweaks were a very major reason they won the series and Bednar didn't adjust his team to overcome it. He simply went his double down and try to overpower, which never worked consistently.

When people talk domination and puck possession, frequently lost is quality. We just had two series losers in Carolina and Colorado who should be case studies in this. There was very little quality actually generated for how much either had the puck... yet people talk like it was pure domination by both of those teams. Both controlled shots and chances, but actually were short in expected goals. Carolina had a more lopsided version, but both just didn't generate enough danger. These Mike Kelly tweets are perfect encapsulations of what happened:

https://x.com/i/web/status/1791841652325142588

https://x.com/i/web/status/1791290174606860792

 

[dahrougem2]

When you look at the whole series, Dallas ended up with 55% of the high danger chances in total. 5v5 it ended 50-50 after game 6 which played a big role. They only lost the total high danger chance battle in 2 games out of 6.

But chances is not what solely decides the series. Dallas' whole game plan was to simply limit the high danger chances as much as they could. They built a gameplan that was okay with the Avs having volume as long as they could keep the high danger in earshot. Doing that would allow the goaltending difference to shine through. This is the same plan that teams use to beat Carolina. Give them the shots and possession, just keep the danger down, and get enough on their goalies that you'll score 3 or more. If you do that, you can win.

It wasn't an all time great coaching performance and the system isn't some new thing (been run in Sweden since the 80s), but his coaching tweaks were a very major reason they won the series and Bednar didn't adjust his team to overcome it. He simply went his double down and try to overpower, which never worked consistently.

When people talk domination and puck possession, frequently lost is quality. We just had two series losers in Carolina and Colorado who should be case studies in this. There was very little quality actually generated for how much either had the puck... yet people talk like it was pure domination by both of those teams. Both controlled shots and chances, but actually were short in expected goals. Carolina had a more lopsided version, but both just didn't generate enough danger. These Mike Kelly tweets are perfect encapsulations of what happened:

https://x.com/i/web/status/1791841652325142588

https://x.com/i/web/status/1791290174606860792

Again, I'm not disagreeing with you in theory. I agree Dallas was better and deserved this series. I also think DeBoer did a good job. I just don't believe he's some voodoo magician on Bednar the way some make him out to be, much like people thought Bowness was to Bednar pre-Jets series. If he was, he'd have several Cups by now.

The 2019 series was a young and upcoming Avs team vs a cup contender. It probably shouldn't have even gone 7 games.

2021 as I've stated I believe Bednar was done in by poor goaltending and a Nazem Kadri suspension.

2024 was a myriad of reasons, from missing Jonathan Drouin for 3 games to missing Val Nichushkin in the last 3 games. Yes, Dallas missed Roope Hintz but this was a deeper, better roster than the Avs. They could overcome his loss (clearly) while the Avs could not overcome having to rely on Zach Parise and Joel Kiviranta in top-nine roles for a 2nd round series. It affects how Bednar wants to play.

Part of winning is luck, we all know this. The Avs just didn't have injury luck vs Dallas this year. That isn't the only reason, but it is a big one.

 

[henchman21]

Again, I'm not disagreeing with you in theory. I agree Dallas was better and deserved this series. I also think DeBoer did a good job. I just don't believe he's some voodoo magician on Bednar the way some make him out to be, much like people thought Bowness was to Bednar pre-Jets series. If he was, he'd have several Cups by now.

The 2019 series was a young and upcoming Avs team vs a cup contender. It probably shouldn't have even gone 7 games.

2021 as I've stated I believe Bednar was done in by poor goaltending and a Nazem Kadri suspension.

2024 was a myriad of reasons, from missing Jonathan Drouin for 3 games to missing Val Nichushkin in the last 3 games. Yes, Dallas missed Roope Hintz but this was a deeper, better roster than the Avs. They could overcome his loss (clearly) while the Avs could not overcome having to rely on Zach Parise and Joel Kiviranta in top-nine roles for a 2nd round series. It affects how Bednar wants to play.

Part of winning is luck, we all know this. The Avs just didn't have injury luck vs Dallas this year. That isn't the only reason, but it is a big one.

3-0 and at least two of those series (21 and 24) had coaching tweaks that changed the series. There are a lot of reasons to what happened, but i think the coaching played a big role in at least two. We all know that Bednar isn't great at adjustments, but is fantastic at an initial plan. In this series, his initial plan was fantastic and it lead to the Avs more or less controlling most of game 1 despite being down. By the middle of the third though, Dallas started tweaking things and the Avs were lucky to escape with an OT win (Dallas completely controlled the OT). Those same tweaks are what really told the story of the series. Dallas adjusted and the Avs could never counter.

IMO Bednar needs to figure out something to adjust his system. It is too one dimensional and if you can at least slow that down, the Avs are shown to be very beatable. DeBoer has shown how to do it. Hakstol showed how to do it. Not all teams have the horses to slow the Avs' system down, but some really do. And when they do... Bednar can't seemingly adjust fast enough within a series.

On the injury side... to me, both were in the same realm and relatively healthy actually. Hintz and Nuke cancel eachother out (though I'd say Hintz would be slightly more missed). Drouin and Hakanpaa for drastically different reasons were missed. Drouin for depth scoring and Hakanpaa to give a defender to limit minutes. Neither side was really all that unlucky injury wise, not for the playoffs.

 

[dahrougem2]

3-0 and at least two of those series (21 and 24) had coaching tweaks that changed the series. There are a lot of reasons to what happened, but i think the coaching played a big role in at least two. We all know that Bednar isn't great at adjustments, but is fantastic at an initial plan. In this series, his initial plan was fantastic and it lead to the Avs more or less controlling most of game 1 despite being down. By the middle of the third though, Dallas started tweaking things and the Avs were lucky to escape with an OT win (Dallas completely controlled the OT). Those same tweaks are what really told the story of the series. Dallas adjusted and the Avs could never counter.

IMO Bednar needs to figure out something to adjust his system. It is too one dimensional and if you can at least slow that down, the Avs are shown to be very beatable. DeBoer has shown how to do it. Hakstol showed how to do it. Not all teams have the horses to slow the Avs' system down, but some really do. And when they do... Bednar can't seemingly adjust fast enough within a series.

On the injury side... to me, both were in the same realm and relatively healthy actually. Hintz and Nuke cancel eachother out (though I'd say Hintz would be slightly more missed). Drouin and Hakanpaa for drastically different reasons were missed. Drouin for depth scoring and Hakanpaa to give a defender to limit minutes. Neither side was really all that unlucky injury wise, not for the playoffs.

You say that some have the horses to slow the Avs down, but the Avs themselves also need the horses to play Bednar's system. You're not going anywhere with Zach Parise and Joel Kiviranta in your top nine. I also don't think Hakstol had all that difficult a task last season when the Avs roster was putrid up front to the point of using Matt Nieto on a 2nd line.

Again, injuries are not the excuse because Dallas deserves full credit for the win as does Seattle last year. But if the Avs have the horses to play Bednar's system, it can work. Where it fails imo is when those horses aren't available. We saw it in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024.

Now, if we're asking a different question re: why can't he make it work if he doesn't have who he needs, that I am willing to say he absolutely needs to fix something. Every team has injuries every year come playoff time, so you work with what you've got and with Bednar we have seen that if even one important piece is gone it throws his team off.

 

[henchman21]

You say that some have the horses to slow the Avs down, but the Avs themselves also need the horses to play Bednar's system. You're not going anywhere with Zach Parise and Joel Kiviranta in your top nine. I also don't think Hakstol had all that difficult a task last season when the Avs roster was putrid up front to the point of using Matt Nieto on a 2nd line.

Again, injuries are not the excuse because Dallas deserves full credit for the win as does Seattle last year. But if the Avs have the horses to play Bednar's system, it can work. Where it fails imo is when those horses aren't available. We saw it in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024.

Now, if we're asking a different question re: why can't he make it work if he doesn't have who he needs, that I am willing to say he absolutely needs to fix something. Every team has injuries every year come playoff time, so you work with what you've got and with Bednar we have seen that if even one important piece is gone it throws his team off.

6 of one, half dozen of another... if Bednar's system is that dependent on perfection, then it is simply not a sustainable system and needs tweaked.

IMO 22 was a team that could overpower who they faced for various reasons. Nashville and Edmonton just weren't good. St Louis has zero counter and then the whole Binnington meltdown. Tampa was incredibly beat up by the time they got to the Final. Avs deserve all the credit for doing what they did, but if the whole plan is based on playing two bad teams, one beat up team, and one good team... that is a narrow needle to thread. Not impossible, but most years just won't line up that way.

I think Bednar really needs to find a way to adjust to different styles. I think the same of Rod the Bod too. When everything is clicking and perfect, things are easy and the teams look great. When one thing goes off, these teams meltdown. At least having a fall back or two is needed.

One thing I'd really wish the Avs would prioritize more is IQ. There are a bunch of dummies on this team. When things are going well and they don't have to improvise, it doesn't hurt. When things are not going well, this team just can think their way out of a preschool puzzle. More than speed or physicality, some IQ in the bottom 6 and on the bottom pairing would go a long ways.

 

[the_fan]

Injuries aren’t an excuse but don’t tell me this roster couldn’t beat Dallas

Nuke-MacK-Drouin
Lehky-Mitts-Mikko
Landy-Colton-Wood
LOC-Trenin-Duhaime/Parise

There was no one missing on D so it’s no use posting the blue line but with that forward group we beat Dallas and most likely win the cup.

We can say injuries aren’t an excuse all we want, but the fact is we didn’t have our true full lineup and Dallas did outside of Hintz for couple of games

 

[Balthazar]

IMO 22 was a team that could overpower who they faced for various reasons. Nashville and Edmonton just weren't good. St Louis has zero counter and then the whole Binnington meltdown. Tampa was incredibly beat up by the time they got to the Final

It's actually a good point that the '22 Avs never had to face a team like DeBoer's Stars this year.

Injuries aren’t an excuse but don’t tell me this roster couldn’t beat Dallas

The issue wasn't the roster, it was the game plan.

 

[the_fan]

It's actually a good point that the '22 Avs never had to face a team like DeBoer's Stars this year.


The issue wasn't the roster, it was the game plan.

We were missing too many key players that was the problem. We needed a full roster against a team like Dallas and we didn’t have it

 

[dahrougem2]

6 of one, half dozen of another... if Bednar's system is that dependent on perfection, then it is simply not a sustainable system and needs tweaked.

IMO 22 was a team that could overpower who they faced for various reasons. Nashville and Edmonton just weren't good. St Louis has zero counter and then the whole Binnington meltdown. Tampa was incredibly beat up by the time they got to the Final. Avs deserve all the credit for doing what they did, but if the whole plan is based on playing two bad teams, one beat up team, and one good team... that is a narrow needle to thread. Not impossible, but most years just won't line up that way.

I think Bednar really needs to find a way to adjust to different styles. I think the same of Rod the Bod too. When everything is clicking and perfect, things are easy and the teams look great. When one thing goes off, these teams meltdown. At least having a fall back or two is needed.

One thing I'd really wish the Avs would prioritize more is IQ. There are a bunch of dummies on this team. When things are going well and they don't have to improvise, it doesn't hurt. When things are not going well, this team just can think their way out of a preschool puzzle. More than speed or physicality, some IQ in the bottom 6 and on the bottom pairing would go a long ways.

We can say that about a ton of coaches, though. It takes injury luck to win. Colorado had it in 2022, Vegas had it last year, St. Louis had it the year they won. When you miss key cogs, the coach's system looks less effective especially in a short series.

I think they definitely need more high IQ guys but this is where I get confused by Bednar. If I'm implementing this system I want all my lines playing the same way. It seems like, at least this past season, he was more interested in his top two lines playing "Avs hockey" and his bottom two lines playing dummy-proof crash and bang hockey. It clashes.

 

[Balthazar]

We were missing too many key players that was the problem. We needed a full roster against a team like Dallas and we didn’t have it

Teams get injuries all the time. Our 3 star players + our 2C + #1 goalie + our whole defense stayed healthy.

That's a very healthy team. Couldn't realistically ask for more than this, really.

 

[the_fan]

Teams get injuries all the time. Our 3 star players + our 2C + #1 goalie + our whole defense stayed healthy.

That's a very healthy team. Couldn't realistically ask for more than this, really.

We needed to roll 4 lines so top players could stay fresh in games because that’s what Dallas did. They constantly tilted the ice and Avs were gassed in games because we didn’t have a full lineup to roll 4 lines. That was the difference in the series. Just go back and watch the games, specially late in games and the double OT. We had no energy and Stars kept putting the pressure

 

[Balthazar]

We can say that about a ton of coaches, though. It takes injury luck to win. Colorado had it in 2022, Vegas had it last year, St. Louis had it the year they won. When you miss key cogs, the coach's system looks less effective especially in a short series.

I think they definitely need more high IQ guys but this is where I get confused by Bednar. If I'm implementing this system I want all my lines playing the same way. It seems like, at least this past season, he was more interested in his top two lines playing "Avs hockey" and his bottom two lines playing dummy-proof crash and bang hockey. It clashes.

We actually learned a lot this year. Bednar has a complex game plan made with advanced stats tailor made for every team. It revolves around avoiding the strengths and exploiting the weaknesses of the opponent. Every little detail counts.

We also learned directly from the horse's mouth that when it doesn't work there's nothing else to do other than pushing harder.

Bednar has one game plan and will live or die with it. When someone finds a way to beat it the Avs are cooked.

 

[Avsfan1921]

Deboers players wanted it more. That’s all this comes down to imo. They executed their coaches game plan better than we did ours and that would have happened regardless of the system Bednar would have in place. The players let the coach down, not the other way around. Our players are not playing with the hunger they’ve shown they can have.

 

[Balthazar]

We needed to roll 4 lines so top players could stay fresh in games because that’s what Dallas did. They constantly tilted the ice and Avs were gassed in games because we didn’t have a full lineup to roll 4 lines. That was the difference in the series. Just go back and watch the games, specially late in games and the double OT. We had no energy and Stars kept putting the pressure

All 4 lines had no energy left because they just kept pushing harder with a game plan that wasn't working. They all ran out of energy.

 

[Avsfan1921]

All 4 lines had no energy left because they just kept pushing harder with a game plan that wasn't working. They all ran out of energy.

It’s funny how fans of the same team come away with such differing views lol. I saw a team that pouted because they couldn’t get sustained pressure and one that couldn’t compete simple passes/plays because they were in their own heads.

 

[the_fan]

All 4 lines had no energy left because they just kept pushing harder with a game plan that wasn't working. They all ran out of energy.

Our 4th line in game 6 was Duhaime-Wagner-Cogs. I don’t know what their ice time was, but it probably wasn’t enough. You just can’t trust that 4th line specially in a big game to put them out there enough and keep the other lines fresher.

If we had the 4 lines where we could trust the 3rd and 4th lines more and put them out there in any situation, guys like Nate and Mikko would have more energy to do game breaking stuff and win us the game, but we simply didn’t have that because of injuries and Nuke situation

 

[dahrougem2]

Our 4th line in game 6 was Duhaime-Wagner-Cogs. I don’t know what their ice time was, but it probably wasn’t enough. You just can’t trust that 4th line specially in a big game to put them out there enough and keep the other lines fresher.

If we had the 4 lines where we could trust the 3rd and 4th lines more and put them out there in any situation, guys like Nate and Mikko would have more energy to do game breaking stuff and win us the game, but we simply didn’t have that because of injuries and Nuke situation

This is where I disagree. You have to trust your 4th line regardless of what it is so your top stars are not running on fumes.

Watch the overtimes in game 6. The Avs top guys had NOTHING left. The 4th line got one shift in both OTs combined. They didn't even hit 10 minutes of TOI in a 90 minute game. That's the equivalent of playing them ~6 minutes in a regulation game.

Bednar has to be told by management that his "ride the top guys into the ground" strategy is over. It simply cannot continue.