The Fourth Period: Dennis Bernstein on if the Colorado Avalanche can get back to elite status. Is goaltending holding them back?
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Ryan Paton: “DB, let’s dive right into it. The Colorado Avalanche came in with a lot of expectations. The season has not gone the way that they wanted it to date so far. However, (Nathan) MacKinnon is playing well. Cale Maker is playing well. Also when Mikko Rantanen, when he will provide the help coming back for Colorado, do they now get back to that elite contender status that we all think they should be?”
Bernstein: “No, not really (Paton). Well, first of all, they have to be in full health. Remember, (Valeri) Nichushkin is still suspended. It looks like he’ll come back around the 15th, that’s fine. They’re missing Miles Wood. They’re missing Ross Colton, had a really good start.
But I go to the goaltending. Pates. They are last in the league in goals against. And normally you would say, ‘Okay, it’s not just a goalie.’ You never lay on when a team is that poor defensively, it’s got to be structure, it’s got to be the commitment to playing defense. It’s got to be a lot of things that align.
Well, I’ll tell you, Pates, that’s probably not the case, and here’s why,. The Colorado Avalanche are second in the league in shot suppression. Only the Carolina Hurricanes have given up less than the Colorado Avalanche with respect to shots per game.
It’s the goaltending, and whether it’s John Gibson when he gets healthy, or maybe, you know, Marc-Andre Fleury or someone like that. Like they need to fix the goaltending.
And so they are an elite team when everybody’s healthy offensively. Like they’re not an elite team defensively.
And I think some of it, I’ll take your reference it, is in a couple seasons ago when they won the Stanley Cup, didn’t have a Vezina winner in the, in between the pipes. They had Darcy Kuemper made the saves he needed to make, and he was good enough to win a title, right?
So that’s not the case right now. So I think they have to fix that. Certainly they really want to play with the big boys in the West this year.”
Paton: “And it’s a different season, a different team for sure. They got to fix their, their way in goal.”