Colorado Avalanche: Spencer Martin Talks about Confidence, Camp Toughness

Colorado Avalanche goalie prospect Spencer Martin is feeling some of the heat of the goalie duel, but he’s confident in his abilities.

The Colorado Avalanche played two goalies in their 5-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday. Semyon Varlamov played the first two periods, letting in three goals on 24 shots. If this were a regular season game, he would have been awarded the loss.

By predetermined design, Spencer Martin came in for the third period. He let in two goals on six shots. That’s… not good. In his post-game presser, Martin admits that it’s not good to allow that many goals on so few shots.

That said, he feels the training camp this year has been a “good building camp” for him. He adds:

"“So, I’m not going to let [the loss] take me too far back. There’s things in the game I’m feeling really good about, so I’m going to take that — it’s one period — and try to build on it.”"

You have to admire his confidence — it’s necessary for a goalie. Indeed, he seems very opposite to Semyon Varlamov, who has that Russian intensity. Martin seems light and happy, more of a Jonathan Bernier style of personality.

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Anyway, one of the themes for this season is that training camp got tougher — I feel like league-wide training camps have gotten a little more intense. For the first time in I don’t know how long, the Avalanche have had four days of training camp. Indeed, you could call today’s practice, with its two groups in three hours format, a fifth day of training camp.

Martin appreciates how arduous camp has become. He feels it helped him and the rest of the team — I’m not sure if he’s talking about the Avs or the Rampage, but possibly both — down the stretch last season. He admits that it’s “hard in the moment” but that it paid off in the end.

One of the tests involved, essentially, the bag skate. The players had to complete an M and then sprint to the center. They do this three times. Their times were 39, 40, and 41 seconds, though I think goalies get longer.

Here’s some skating goalies from the first day of camp:

That’s Pavel Francous in the front and, I believe, Semyon Varlamov in the back. As you can see, goalies in full padding quickly lag behind.

In any case, as tough as it for goalies to participate in Mountains, Martin doesn’t mind. He says that he likes skating. He acknowledges, though, that “It’s tough, heavy.” There was an added filip to the testing:

"“Doing it at altitude in the first couple weeks, it’s tough. We’re through it now, and we feel good about the work we put in early.”"

Martin brings up an interesting point. The Colorado Avalanche play at a higher altitude than any other team. Oxygen is a bit thinner up here. Now, for elite athletes, that doesn’t present the same problem as your average person. However, they can feel the effects.

That’s one of the things the Avs are banking on. It’s part of the reason fitness has become so emphasized. If you’re in excellent condition at altitude, you’re that much harder to play against than players who are in excellent condition at sea level.

Martin knows there’s a goalie competition in Avs Nation. The Avalanche have their one-two punch in Semyon Varlamov and Philipp Grubauer — or in Grubauer and Varlamov, depending on how it all shakes out. However, there’s also a big battle for who’s Goalie #3 — there’s no clear backup backup goalie.

As Martin points out, there have been good goalies on the team since he got drafted in 2013 (third round). Indeed, he looks forward to the competition.

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As of right now, it’s too early to say how the goalie situation is going to sort itself out for the Colorado Avalanche. To my mind, neither Varlamov nor Martin did themselves any favors with their debuts. I’m guessing Grubauer and his challenger, Francous, will get their chances soon, probably against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.

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