The Colorado Avalanche’s goaltending, and a couple San Jose Sharks who could be traded
The Fourth Period: David Pagnotta and Dennis Bernstein talking about Colorado Avalanche and their goaltending situation, as well as a couple of San Jose Sharks who could be moved at the deadline.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Kate Pettersen: “And guys we talked about it. A lot of things that we’ve talked about have been happening, not to toot our own horn, but Colorado in particular. We talked about the goaltending situation.
They’ve had a busy 10 days. They go out and they get Scott Wedgewood, and we’re still questioning, you know, what are they going to do for number one? Well, Mackenzie Blackwood, is he the solution to the problem? Well, we’re about to find out. But it sounds like they have a better one-two punch. Now it looks like that on paper.
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So what do you guys think of that situation, and maybe what else Colorado needs to do to keep the train rolling?
Pagnotta: “Yeah, well, Kate, I mean, as you said, we’ve talked about this after the Wedgewood deal last week. We’re kind of wondering, is that it? Is that really the solution that you’re looking for? And clearly not, as they ended up getting Blackwood out of San Jose.
Now, this trade almost happened last week. They had been talking about this for a little over a week. The deal happened on Monday, but there was an offer on the table from Colorado that clearly San Jose liked, because they acted on it. But this was something that had been going on for about a week, and everyone was kind of on notice in San Jose, kind of waiting now. Kudos to them, they kept it quiet. So, good job.
But clearly, Colorado needed to address their goaltending. And the confidence they had in (Alexandar) Georgiev, well, it fleeted. So they go out, they get Blackwood, whose numbers aren’t the most impressive, but take into account he was on San Jose. But his performance overall, in the underlining numbers, impressive.
So Colorado banking on that, and now what they’re going to be doing moving forward, guys is getting a sense primarily of how they can maneuver their salary cap. Is Gabe Landeskog going to be able to play this season. That’s going to affect the type of impact moves they make later on in the year.
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It sounds like they’re settled right now, but they’re going to keep tabs on that situation and how that’s going to add to their roster, or how that’s going to allow them to add to their roster, DB, later on in the season, closer to the trade deadline.
Bernstein: “Yeah, now we can rename them the Colorado Forrests, since they have Scott Wedgewood, McKenzie Blackwood, and …”
Pagnotta: “Miles Wood.”
Bernstein: “Miles Wood exactly. So that’s it. Look, here’s the thing, whether you like to trade or not, and your Colorado Avalanche fan, your GM was decisive. He knew they weren’t good enough. We knew they weren’t good enough. Everyone knew. And the fact that, look, it clears a path for (Yaroslav) Askarov in San Jose without question.
Because Blackwood’s numbers really good. I think there’s a stat, his first and last game is a shark. He had 50 saves in both games, right? So you’re right about facing a lot of shots. Look, if he can revert back to his New Jersey days, they got (a good??) shot.
Because remember this team, the Colorado Avalanche, still remembers they want to cup with Darcy Kemper. So they’re hoping that maybe they can do the trick with Blackwood.
But it was coming untenable. You watch the games, you know, night in, night out, with the Avalanche, and say they play relatively well. They get offense from the guy, from their big boys, and they can’t stop the puck.
Well, this combination of the goaltenders should stop the puck better. Is it good enough to get them three or four rounds? I’m not sure. But you got to give them, got to give the Avalanche credit for being decisive when they knew they had a big gap in goal.
Pagnotta: “Another thing to kind of look at here is what San Jose could potentially do down the road because Georgiev’s it on an expiring contract, and they have, you know, some possibility of, you know, kind of adding dollars here as well.
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They have some other assets that teams are going to look at later on the season, (Mikael) Granlund certainly being one of them.
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