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Need to fix leaky goaltending, team defensive problems |
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Rick Sadowski
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The Avalanche have been giving up goals at an alarming rate lately, 13 in the past two games and six in Pittsburgh on Dec. 4 before holding Florida to two goals two nights later.
It’s a disturbing trend, one that needs to be corrected this weekend, at St. Louis on Friday and against Dallas on Saturday at the Pepsi Center.
Philipp Grubauer, who will start against the Blues, and Semyon Varlamov, who gets the nod against the Stars, have to better, but so do their teammates.
Varlamov has been especially porous. He’s allowed 11 goals in his past three starts totaling parts of seven periods and gotten the hook two games in a row.
It isn’t easy coming in cold in relief, but Grubauer gave up two goals on 15 shots in the Avalanche’s 7-1 loss to Tampa Bay on Saturday and three goals on five shots to Edmonton on Tuesday in the 6-4 loss.
The Avalanche have lost two games in a row and three of the past four after going 9-0-2 while allowing three goals or fewer in all 11 games.
“I wish I could say it’s just one thing and we go and fix it,” coach Jared Bednar said after practice Thursday. “It’s really not; it’s our whole game, really. When you’re a step slow, we don’t look as good. When we’re not playing with the pace and tempo and intent to play a north game, we don’t look as good.
“Our puck management at times and some of the turnovers, they’ve led to automatic goals against. Our PK hasn’t been as good, our goaltending … everything’s just a notch down from where it was when we were rolling along. We’ve got to fix everything at once.
“The good news about that is it’s not a huge gap. We know some of the issues we had with the puck the other night, they’re curable. We have to make better decisions, we’ve got to be more focused and committed to playing the right way.
“That’s what it is, it’s a commitment thing. We went through a (previous) stretch where we didn’t win, we won a bunch and then some of those habits crept back into our game. That’s why I think we were a little bit mentally tired. That’s no excuse, the hunger’s got to be there. We’ve got to stop this thing at two games instead of letting it go two, three, four, five.”
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Forward Alexander Kerfoot, who has an upper-body injury, skated while wearing a non-contact jersey. Bednar said there’s no timeline as to when he might be able to play.
Defenseman Conor Timmins also skated. Again, no timeline for when he might be able to play, most likely with the AHL Colorado Eagles when he does. He’s been dealing with post-concussion symptoms since the spring.
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