Pre-Game Talk: Week to Get Back (To Where You Once Belong) [@VAN; @CGY; @EDM]

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Yea, funny how Varly had the hiccups through all of October, then again after the All Star break, yet we have a better record than 13 other teams.

Wouldn't those also be the two weakest stretches of the season, thus kind of proving his point?

But we are very dependent on our goalie, more so than any other team in the league. It's hard to deny that.

 

[cgf]

Wouldn't those also be the two weakest stretches of the season, thus kind of proving his point?

But we are very dependent on our goalie, more so than any other team in the league. It's hard to deny that.

I wouldn't argue with that statement too vehemently; though a team like New Jersey would have a stronger case than we would in that debate.

I just got a chuckle out of the specific phrasing of that scout's hyperbole.

 

[Foppa2118]

Wouldn't those also be the two weakest stretches of the season, thus kind of proving his point?

But we are very dependent on our goalie, more so than any other team in the league. It's hard to deny that.

No because we're currently in the playoffs and have a better record than 13 other teams. 13 other teams didn't have goaltending hiccups the entire year.

They clearly rely way too heavily on Varly, but this is just part of the same media driven narrative that the Avs are the worst team in the NHL, and Varly is the only reason they're not.

 

[tigervixxxen]

The Avalanche have climbed back into a playoff spot in part because they’ve received the goaltending they’ve needed so far in March. In his three games, Calvin Pickard has a .936 save percentage this month. Varlamov is at .945 this month.

“They have nice pieces,” one scout said. “I like their team, but I think they’re a year or two away from making a push in the playoffs.”

Is a little more. Not much more content. A little about Corsi but doesn't hit it hard, its like a requirement to bring it up when talking about Colorado I'm sure. Quotes from Sakic, the same old our core is young but they've been around, they need to take the next step. Doesn't make a conclusion at the end of the article, it is what it is.

BTW, Custance had an article the other day about who each team's core players are and their age. Said it was inspired by a talk with a GM who bristled at his comment that his team was one of the oldest in the league and said no, look at the age of our core. Gee, I wonder who that unnamed GM was.

Anyway, sure its fair to say that goaltending is important to us, but so is it to pretty much every other team. When we weren't even getting .900 goaltending we struggled, well no crap. Do we rely on it more than other teams, maybe in certain ways like letting our goalies see the shot and keeping within rage of winning those 2-3 goal games. But the media seems to simplify it way too much, its not the entirety of our identity and what we are trying to do. It doesn't explain the good stretches and the bad. There's a lot more to explore there but the media doesn't want to touch it, its just "corsi bad, goaltending good".

 

[henchman21]

Wouldn't those also be the two weakest stretches of the season, thus kind of proving his point?

But we are very dependent on our goalie, more so than any other team in the league. It's hard to deny that.

I wouldn't say more so than ANY other team in the league. More than most. The Avs are mid-pack when it comes to most goalie stats and are mid pack when it comes to teams in the NHL. Meanwhile Philly and Minny are getting top 3 goaltending (5v5) and are just around the wild card spots. Both teams around the same level as the Avs overall.

 

[dahrougem2]

For 13-14 and 14-15 under Roy, I would agree with the sentiment that the way Varlamov goes, we go.

But this season? Yes, he's still very important to our team but it's become more of a myth than actuality that this team goes the way Varlamov goes. He's 17th amongst starting goalies in Sv% and 21st in G.A.A. And yet this team on March 17th is in a playoff spot. I personally believe the team has played much better hockey this year than last year.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Wouldn't those also be the two weakest stretches of the season, thus kind of proving his point?

But we are very dependent on our goalie, more so than any other team in the league. It's hard to deny that.

I think that 2nd scout hit the nail on the head. Our system is designed in a way that we invite teams to shoot the puck and we put faith in Varly/Pickard being capable of making that first save. Our defense does everything they can to limit just how high quality of a shot that first shot is, and then they make sure to limit the number of 2nd/3rd chances after that.


Its why we give up so many shots. Most teams defensive strategy is to stop the other team from shooting right away, but we're different in that regard.



I think part of it probably come from Roy and his goaltender background as well. I think maybe he recognizes or believes that its better to allow those initial shots and work on preventing additional chances rather then to try and prevent every single shot, but put yourself at risk of giving up an extremely high quality chance instead.



We definitely rely on our goaltender more then most other teams. But the good thing is that we have 2 goalies capable of taking that extra load. And we have the forwards that can bury the chances they do get and create the big chances out of the limited opportunities they may get.



People can knock on the advanced stats as much as they want. And like Roy said its not something we should ignore and we should be pushing to get better in those categories. But at the end of the day we're still having success with the style we play. We've won more then we've lost every year that we've used this style, and we're on the verge of being a playoff team 2/3 of those years as well. The on ice product isn't elite by any means either, lots of room for improvement in that regard both on Offense and Defense. As the talent level on the team improves I think the advanced stats would naturally improve as well.


We are making progress IMO. This team struggled to create an identity for itself last year. This year we've really done a good job at creating an identity and playing to that identity most of the time. Now its just about getting better within that identity. Getting better on the forecheck and using the big size that we have to our advantage even more.

 

[henchman21]

I'd add to that, once some solid puck movement happens from the defense with consistency... a lot of things will fall into line.

 

[ArWKo]

He's not wrong. If Varly has a "hiccup" in this last stretch, the Avs will be dead in the water. Whether you care to extrapolate his argument to the season as a whole (and I think there's a good point to be made there - even if it isn't the whole story) is a different question, but I don't think there's any doubt that it's the case for the remainder of this season.

Then, if they do make the playoffs - how will they win? Most likely on the back of Varly playing lights out if they're going to stand any chance.

Obviously this team isn't "there" yet so it shouldn't surprise anyone that they rely so heavily on their goalie - but there's a strong argument to be made by both the numbers and just watching that even with those things in mind, the Avs lean on the goalie a lot more than almost any team in this league - I'd say the only current comparables would be the Rangers with Lundqvist, the Devils and Schneider, and Montreal with Price. It certainly feels like more than any other team, the Avs can't often survive a bad night by the goalie - and I know it's true for any team in the league, if they goalie flounders it doesn't bode well for the rest of the team - but the Avs seem to less able than other teams to overcome poor goalie play, whether it's because they're fundamentally unable to or if it's a mental thing I don't know but it's hard to miss watching them.

 

[RockLobster]

I know that you listed Montreal with Price as "comparable" with the Avs, but it's so much more than that. That team took an EXTREME nosedive when Price went out. At least the Avs have Pickard who has handled his situations to the degree that people feel he could take over in the future. Montreal is just a different team w/o Price.

 

[henchman21]

Avs have done far, far better without Varly than Montreal has without Price... it really isn't even close. Picks and Berra have both had good stretches replacing Varly (Picks and Berra have combined to start 48 games the past two seasons). It can be argued that when Picks and Berra has stepped in (save for early season Berra last year) there hasn't really been much of a dropoff.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Is it that the Habs system relies on Price or is it a mentality thing?

You could say any playoff bubble team would be out if they don't get great goaltending this final stretch.

 

[CobraAcesS]

I do think we rely heavily on our goal-tending, but we also score enough that if we get remotely good goal-tending overall we're still a mid pack team.

Look at Detroit now that Marazek hasn't been other worldly as of late, they've let Philly catch and pass them, and a big reason for it is their lack of scoring.

Our goalies don't have to only let in two goals or less every single night in order for us to win some games. We've usually been able to score three goals or more in a lot of our games.

We probably rely on our goalie about the same as any other team who does not have a very strong set of defenders.

Teams like NJ & DET who don't score a lot probably rely on their goalie much more heavily than we do IMO.

 

[henchman21]

I do think we rely heavily on our goal-tending, but we also score enough that if we get remotely good goal-tending overall we're still a mid pack team.

Look at Detroit now that Marazek hasn't been other worldly as of late, they've let Philly catch and pass them, and a big reason for it is their lack of scoring.

Our goalies don't have to only let in two goals or less every single night in order for us to win some games. We've usually been able to score three goals or more in a lot of our games.

We probably rely on our goalie about the same as any other team who does not have a very strong set of defenders.

Teams like NJ & DET who don't score a lot probably rely on their goalie much more heavily than we do IMO.

I agree with this. The Avs do rely on goaltending, more than a lot of teams, but it isn't the most in the NHL.

 

[Flanagan]

Wes Gilbertson ‏@WesGilbertson 30m30 minutes ago
#Flames C Sam Bennett and D TJ Brodie are "very doubtful" to face Avalanche. G Niklas Backstrom will make Flames debut in Montreal.

Well Calgary is doing their part to help Iggy get back in the playoffs!

Now watch us blow it

 

[S E P H]

For 13-14 and 14-15 under Roy, I would agree with the sentiment that the way Varlamov goes, we go.

But this season? Yes, he's still very important to our team but it's become more of a myth than actuality that this team goes the way Varlamov goes. He's 17th amongst starting goalies in Sv% and 21st in G.A.A. And yet this team on March 17th is in a playoff spot. I personally believe the team has played much better hockey this year than last year.

I'm more inclined to agree with you, but lets be honest for a second. Why are the Avs in a playoff spot? Biggest reason why is due to the fall of the Minnesota **** Wild. I think we can all agree here that Wild are a better and deeper team than us. Of course they have some key pieces they're missing that we do, #1 goaler and #1 centre. I agree with the notation that Avs have looked better for parts of the game, first they haven't been heavily relied on Varlamov compared to the super season. Second they have improved the squads depth and actually have usable players in correct positions. Those are improvements, but for one step forward, this team's inability to close off games makes them fall two steps back. 99.9% of the people here said that Avs are a playoff bubble team, they are what we all thought they are. But they're in a playoff spot due to how poor Minnesota and Nashville have been than Avs playing this superb brand of hockey. For the record I said in the podcast that I think Avs would be in a playoff spot, but more in terms of certain teams falling than the Avs becoming great. I think we're seeing this right now as well. This whole NHL season has been really funny, the parity is still very strong, but this year has been very top heavy. Great teams putting like 20 points more than the rest of the pack, where the pack decides who wants to lose it more will miss out IMO.

 

[henchman21]

I'm more inclined to agree with you, but lets be honest for a second. Why are the Avs in a playoff spot? Biggest reason why is due to the fall of the Minnesota **** Wild. I think we can all agree here that Wild are a better and deeper team than us. Of course they have some key pieces they're missing that we do, #1 goaler and #1 centre. I agree with the notation that Avs have looked better for parts of the game, first they haven't been heavily relied on Varlamov compared to the super season. That's an improvement, but for one step forward, this team's inability to close off games makes them fall two steps back. 99.9% of the people here said that Avs are a playoff bubble team, they are what we all thought they are. But they're in a playoff spot due to how poor Minnesota and Nashville have been than Avs playing this superb brand of hockey. For the record I said in the podcast that I think Avs would be in a playoff spot, but more in terms of certain teams falling than the Avs becoming great. I think we're seeing this right now as well. This whole NHL season has been really funny, the parity is still very strong, but this year has been very top heavy. Great teams putting like 20 points more than the rest of the pack, where the pack decides who wants to lose it more will miss out IMO.

This is why I don't think the Wild are a better team. Those are major pieces that they don't have, and really don't have any prospect for in the near future.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

TJ Brodie was the best player on the ice the last two times we played the Flames. Huge help for us not having him there.

 

[MonsterMack]

I think we can all agree here that Wild are a better and deeper team than us.

I don't think we can all agree on that at all

 

[Cousin Eddie]

I think the Wild are a better hockey team. Doesn't mean we can't get in over them though.

 

[Gigantor The Goalie]

I don't know if it was mentioned by Roy said Bigras will be reevaluated in Calgary. I guess he will try to pass the last test again.

Maybe a general interest, Berra was injured yesterday and Martin was called back up to San Antonio.

Good luck to you Martin.

 

[tigervixxxen]

I think we all know the wild are doing their best to hand it to us more than making some valiant push. But we are the team that's there to take advantage. Another WC is welcome to step up and take it. Would it be better if we had 12 loser points like we did last year just to make the points race higher? That said, I don't even have the rosiest opinion of this team myself, I think there are a lot of holes and missing talent. But it is what it is and here we are so might as well make the best of it.

 

[S E P H]

I don't think we can all agree on that at all

Kento in the post below is what I personally think. Just because I say I think Wild are a better team doesn't mean they deserve to be in the playoffs over us. The best teams on paper normally do not win. If we get a postseason spot I would be stoke, because not only do we get to watch some awesome hockey and cheer on our club, but because we get to knock out the Wild as we do it!!!

I think the Wild are a better hockey team. Doesn't mean we can't get in over them though.

 

[Foppa Frossa]

Calgary has been playing some decent hockey, I'm worried about that game.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Calgary has been playing some decent hockey, I'm worried about that game.

We should be worried about every game.