Colorado Avalanche Coach is for the Interim

The Colorado Avalanche’s new coach, Jared Bednar, is just an interim choice until the team can select from a more viable pool of candidates.

Colorado Avalanche fans were ready to take anybody after Patrick Roy left the team — except for Bob Hartley, for some reason. Hartley won the Jack Adams for coaching and has a Stanley Cup with this team, but whatever. For some reason Avs fans consider him persona non grata.

I’m the exact opposite, and I was ready to hate anyone, except maybe Bob Hartley. (Stanley Cup with this team.) I was also ready to eventually consign myself to a good coach, namely Kevin Dineen. I mean, it was going to be hard to argue with Dineen’s NHL playing experience capped with his helping coach the Central Division rival Chicago Blackhawks to Stanley Cup victory in 2014.

Then the Colorado Avalanche announced Jared Bednar as the new coach, and I went “huh?” as Avs Nation began whistling in the wind. He coached the Lake Erie Monster to Calder Cup victory last season! Woo-hoo, he’s the second coming of Mike Babcock.

Actually, GM Joe Sakic said he’s basically the second coming of Bob Hartley:

“I won two Stanley Cups with coaches that didn’t have head coaching experience when they came in.”

That’s a little weird considering the actual Bob Hartley was available, but ok. Bednar had success one year with the AHL Lake Erie Monsters.

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I don’t know the details of Bednar’s contract, however, this seems like Pope Ratzinger all over again. (Yes, I know he went by Pope Benedict XVI, but Ratzinger is so much more fun of a name.)

Pope John Paul II was a much beloved leader, and he did great things for the Catholic Church. But then he died, and the Church needed somebody to fill in before they selected the next step of Catholic leadership. That man was Joseph Ratzinger.

Jared Bednar is Joseph Ratzinger. He’s the interim between the legendary Patrick Roy and whomever the Colorado Avalanche think are going to lead them back into relevancy. (He’s such an unknown quantity that there aren’t any pictures we can use of him for posts.)

You can argue that he knows how to develop young talent. He’s won at lower levels of hockey. That still makes him the interim coach, the guy who’s finally going to develop the Colorado Avalanche’s young talent into a team that makes the playoffs. That may take one or two years.

Next: Sakic Inspires Greatness

After that, we’ll see who the team really thinks is going to lead them to the Stanley Cup. Sorry, but it isn’t Jared Bednar.