Colorado Avalanche Make Blue Line Worse

By demoting Eric Gelinas to the AHL while keeping lesser defensemen, the Colorado Avalanche have actually made their already bad blue line worse.

The Colorado Avalanche cannot expect to have good defense if they can’t manage their personnel. And they do not seem to be able to manage their personnel.

The team just sent Eric Gelinas down to the San Antonio Rampage after twice putting him on waivers. In the meantime, Francois Beauchemin and Fedor Tyutin continue to get top minutes. Both of these players have been worse this year than Gelinas.

Naturally, everything is about statistics these days. Supposedly the Colorado Avalanche were joining the analytics parade. However, they’re not using that to drive their blueline decisions.

For example, Gelinas has a Corsi For of 48.3%. That’s not great, but it’s better than Beauchemin’s 46.3% and Tyutin’s 45.1%. His relative Corsi is positive, 0.2. Again, that’s not impressive, but it’s better than Beauch’s -1.8 and Tyutin’s -3.1.

Now, Gelinas didn’t get a lot of playing time even when Jared Bednar put him in the lineup. He averaged about 11 minutes a game versus over 19 minutes for Tyutin and a ridiculous 22 minutes for Beauchemin.

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However, Gelinas didn’t have just the easy assignments. He averaged 20% of his time against tough assignments and had a positive Corsi differential of 1.1.

Aside from the Avalanche’s best defenseman, Erik Johnson, Gelinas was the only defenseman with a positive Corsi differential against any opponents. Tyutin played a third of his time against tough opponents and recorded an alarming -12 Corsi differential. Beauchemin played 20% of his time against tough opponents and recorded a stupid -16.6 CD.

(In case you’e wondering, Johnson played a quarter of his time against tough opponents yet recorded a +2.4 CD.)

That’s why it makes no sense to me that the Colorado Avalanche would choose to demote Eric Gelinas over Francois Beauchemin or Fedor Tyutin. Frankly, his analytical numbers are better than Patrick Wiercioch’s as well. (Corsi For at 47%, relative Corsi of -0.5 and -7.5 when playing against tough opponents.)

MORE FROM MILE HIGH STICKING: Eric Gelinas Deserves a Chance

Analytics aside, Gelinas presents as a better blueline candidate than either Beauchemin or Tyutin. He’s a lot younger — 25 to Fedor’s 33 and Francois’ 36. With his youth does come mistake-making, but Gelinas has been in and out of the lineup all season. He’s hardly had a chance to get into the flow.

Plus, Beauchemin and Tyutin make so many mistakes themselves, and neither has youth or lack of playing time to blame.

Eric Gelinas also has more ideal size than Beauchemin at least — 6-foot-4, 215 pounds compared to 6-foot-1, 208 pounds. (Tyutin is a bullish 6-foot-2, 221 pounds.)

But then, that added size was prized in the old regime. Eric Gelinas’ big “crime” is that he was a Patrick Roy pick. The new regime is working so hard to make a name for itself that’s completely separate from Roy’s vision, even to the detriment of the team.

That became so obvious to me when I was at the Colorado Avalanche game the other night and Jared Bednar put what’s become his favorite defensive pairing on the ice — Fedor Tyutin and Cody Goloubef. Both players come from the Columbus Blue Jackets system, where Bednar (and assistant GM Chris MacFarland) are from.

MORE FROM MILE HIGH STICKING: Cody Goloubef Must Go

Sakic has shown trouble in the past adequately managing his assets. Demoting Eric Gelinas over Beauchemin or Tyutin is another example of this liability.

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