Colorado Avalanche: Philipp Grubauer’s 2018-2019 Season in Review

Colorado Avalanche goalie Philipp Grubauer had his ups and downs throughout the season, but he finished strong.

The Colorado Avalanche acquired goalie Philipp Grubauer in a trade with the Washington Capitals. The then-pending free agent signed pretty quickly with Colorado for three years.

The three years were meant to be something of an extended “show me” contract. At the time, the Avs still had Semyon Varlamov as their number-one goalie. However, Varlamov was reaching veteran status, and Colorado was dedicated to the youth movement.

Grubauer was 26 at the time, so four years younger than Varlamov. That’s a lot in hockey years. Colorado was seeing if Grubauer could become the team’s starter.

Well, it didn’t start out that way. Grubauer’s debut was rough. He allowed four goals in 34 shots (.882 save percentage) en route to a Colorado Avalanche loss.

His play was up and down over the next several starts he had. After the loss in his debut, he had three straight wins and then two overtime losses.

He also didn’t have the coaching staff’s trust yet. Those six games were spread out over five weeks. Varlamov, meanwhile, had literally twice that many games in the same time span — 13, to be exact.

Grubauer got into a little groove from mid-November to early December. He got to play five games within a three-week span, and four of those games were wins.

Then disaster started descending on the goalie tandem. Varlamov got pulled in the next two games, and Grubauer didn’t offer much in the way of improvement. He played 32:01 against Tampa Bay, allowing 2 goals in 15 shots. He played 23:15 against Edmonton, allowing three goals in 8 shots.

It’s almost as if those two games, on December 8 and 11 respectively, were the turning point for the goalie tandem. Because over the next several weeks, they were… not good.

Grubauer recorded only one more win the rest of December in five games. In fact, Varlamov got sick in late December, so Philip took over with Pavel Francouz as his backup. And Francouz had to step in when Grubauer allowed 4 goals in 16 shots against the Coyotes.

Varlamov was out again in early January, and Francouz had to step in again when Grubauer let in 4 goals in 14 shots.

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About that time, we in Avs Nation started getting worried. Grubauer wasn’t supposed to be just our backup goalie — he was the heir apparent for the starting job. And it wasn’t apparent that he was up to the task.

What’s more, that’s also when the goal tending in general went down the drain. Even when Varlamov returned, the pair were losing more than they were winning. They weren’t the only factor, but everyone said openly that the Colorado Avalanche were getting below league-average goal tending.

Suddenly, in February, the tide turned. First Varlamov got back on his game, and then Grubauer finally stepped into his stride.

He did more than that. By March, he was starting more games than Varlamov. And he was winning. He threw three shutouts between February 23 to March 17. In that span, he went 9-2-2 from February 23 to the end of the season.

He was our starting goalie. What’s more, when the Colorado Avalanche went into the playoffs, he was The Guy. He played every single game, and he even threw a shutout.

He also did this:

Remember that? The casual little leg lift to stop what was otherwise the game-winning goal in overtime?!

So, to sum up Philip Grubauer’s season in review, he started out lukewarm, went cold, and finished red hot. He played just 37 regular season games last year, a number that’s going to have to increase by at least 10 or 12 this upcoming season as the Colorado Avalanche’s starter.