Colorado Avalanche Coaching (and Playing) Starting to Fail

The Colorado Avalanche have gone into a tailspin at the worst time in the season. Coach Jared Bednar isn’t doing enough to stop it.

The Colorado Avalanche “playoff push” has consisted of a 4-5-1 record in the last 10 games. The California road trip, in which the team played two of the three teams they’re fighting for a playoff spot, consisted of 0-2-1 record. Their last two weeks (starting with the home and home against Vegas) of play has been 1-4-2.

What kind of playoff push is that?

I’ll tell you what kind of playoff push it is — the exact same kind as they displayed at the end of the 2015-16 season. The Avalanche went 1-8-0 to freefall right out of a playoff spot.

I’m frustrated with how the players have been accounting themselves. However, who’s responsibility is it to get them back on track? Who’s responsibility is it to get them game-ready for such important contests?

Partially the captain and other leadership group. And partially the coach.

Note: Read the caveats, please. But also, I’m nothing if not consistent. 😉

Lineup Decisions

I’ve never been a big proponent of coach Jared Bednar’s. However, throughout most of this year he’s implemented policies with which I’ve agreed.

His two main policies have been to grant ice time (or even a roster spot) based on performance not name and to switch up lines to generate offense. Both have triggered me at times in the past, but they’ve won me over as they appeared to be working.

Well, he top line isn’t generating scoring chances. Whether it’s because their chemistry is starting to fail or because teams have figured them out, the line of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and captain Gabriel Landeskog has been far less than deadly in the playoff fall.

And yet, stubbornly, coach Bednar has kept them together. Earlier in the season he wasn’t afraid to drop Landeskog down and slot either Alexander Kerfoot or Tyson Jost — both of whom have been more effective in the last nine games — in place. Yet he refuses to do so now despite the complete lack of effectiveness of that line.

Ice Time

More from Mile High Sticking

Additionally, there’s been no accountability. Tyson Barrie has a bad shift or three? Why, toss him back out there and give him more ice time than even Erik Johnson has ever had in a single game — 28:02 in the Sharks game.

Who else does Bednar have to play? Samuel Girard (20:36), Patrick Nemeth (18:13), David Warsofsky (12:29) — all played better than Barrie. (So did Mark Barberio but it was, after all, his first game back after a lengthy absence.)

What happened to giving players ice time based on their play rather than their name? I know Barrie is overall a better… not defenseman, but player than Warsofsky and Nemeth. However, he wasn’t in the Sharks game.

Bednar wasn’t afraid to limit some of the worse forwards in the group — both Gabriel Bourque and Colin Wilson have been playing badly, and their ice time reflected that. However, Wilson probably shouldn’t have even been in the lineup — as Avs insider Adrian Dater points out, he has no chemistry with any line and looks gassed most of the time.

Fitness

Another foundational piece of Bednar’s system has been an emphasis on fitness. It’s supposed to be exactly for this time — when the Colorado Avalanche players are in the home stretch.

And they look gassed. It’s not just Wilson. Nathan MacKinnon looks tired. Gabriel Landeskog looks tired. Mikko Rantanen looks tired (He’s even gotten worse at staying on his feet). Hell, let’s throw the guy a pass and point out that even Tyson Barrie looks tired.

I know they’re the big names on the team who eat up the most minutes. But isn’t that what the fitness foundation was all about? Get the athletes in such tip-top shape that they power through this crunch time.

Or, in retrospect, maybe all those bag skates weren’t such a good idea.

Next: Youth Close to Milestones

The Colorado Avalanche face the biggest game of the season — and for some players, of their NHL careers so far — on Saturday. I hope coach Bednar gets back to his basics. I hope he has the guts to stick to the guns that worked so well for him earlier on in the season. He had good ideas — I just wish he hadn’t given up on them at the crucial moment.

Caveat, to save you time typing in the comments section — I didn’t blame then-coach Patrick Roy at the collapse of the 2015-16 season. I still think he tried harder to get the team on track, but maybe, just maybe, there were a couple adjustments he could have made differently.

Caveat #2: The players need to be better, too. Before you say it, I know they’re the youngest team in the NHL. But it’s the rookies and sophomores who are playing the best.

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