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Bednar: "Miracle" to be in playoff spot; Jost to center Eagles top line |
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Rick Sadowski
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As of Friday afternoon, despite losing 10 of their past 12 games (2-8-2), the Avalanche were third in the jam-packed Central Division and Western Conference.
I mentioned that to coach Jared Bednar after practice Friday, and he certainly agreed the Avalanche are fortunate that so many other teams are also struggling.
“It’s something we talked about this morning,” he said. “Miraculously, we’re sitting in a (playoff) spot. No other year that you go through a stretch like we went through that we’d be anywhere near a spot. We are because other teams are struggling the same way we are. So, consider ourselves lucky to this point, that’s what I say.
“What’s happened, happened. It doesn’t matter what happened to this point. We’re in a spot. It’s incredible, but we are, so now we got to go make the most of it. Home heavy schedule, we control our own destiny. Time to get to work.”
The Avalanche will play their next five games at the Pepsi Center, three before the NHL All-Star break and bye week, two games after.
It starts with Saturday’s matinee at the Pepsi Center against Los Angeles. The Kings are 14th in the West but just seven points out of a wild card berth.
“We’re angry about it, the things we’ve done in the past,” Mikko Rantanen said. “It hasn’t been good enough. You can say we lost a lot of one-goal games, but still we lost the games. We have to find the winning mentality again, how we did at the start of the year.”
The Avalanche have made a terrible habit of getting off to slow starts.
“(Competitiveness) hasn’t been missing, it’s just been inconsistent,” Bednar said. “You look at the teams that are struggling in our division and in the conference, everyone’s striving for consistency. We’ve had it in games and not gotten rewarded. It’s missing the next night, and it can’t be. This time of year, we’ve got to buckle down and be ready to go every night.
“It starts with the competitiveness. If it’s not there, then there’s no use looking at anything else. That’s got to be a prerequisite to the game and then we move on from there and make sure we’re as tight as can be in all other areas.”
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Tyson Jost will center A.J. Greer and Martin Kaut on Friday when the Colorado Eagles meet the Tucson Roadrunners in Loveland.
Jost and Ryan Graves were assigned to the AHL team Thursday. Jost, the Avalanche’s first-round pick (No. 10) in the 2016 NHL draft, has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in 43 games and recently was demoted (again) to the fourth line.
“They have six games in the next nine nights and then we have a break, so he can stay and continue to play,” Bednar said of Jost.
It’s an opportunity for Jost to play center, his natural position, and get plenty of ice time to regain his confidence.
“Exactly,” Bednar said.
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