The Colorado Avalanche took home the win against the Washington Capitals on Sunday afternoon in a game that headed to overtime. It was one of those games that looked quite sluggish, but yet wasn’t a blowout for the other team. The team’s goaltending has been a fun topic to cover, and following the win, it provided another storyline.
Mackenzie Blackwood’s win on Sunday marked just the second time in franchise history where both of the team’s goaltenders have reached 20 wins in the same season. Blackwood is now 20-8-0-1 on the year, while Scott Wedgewood, who last played on March 18 vs the Dallas Stars, is 25-5-0-6.
It’s no secret that when the team’s goaltending is top notch, the Avalanche come out with the win more times than not. It had to be stellar on Sunday, as the Avs struggled to get much going until the third period, when they scored two goals. The game ended just 1:22 into the overtime period, when Brock Nelson tapped the puck past Logan Thompson.
The goaltending hasn’t always been elite, though. Blackwood entered the game in relief of Wedgewood during the 7-2 loss to the Penguins. Blackwood missed the first chunk of the season after having surgery. His first action of the season was November 1 at San Jose against the Sharks. Adding on, in his first three games of the year, he allowed 10 goals on 77 shots, equalling an 87% save percentage.
Thankfully, the Avalanche have been stellar more times than not. They have a league-leading 46 wins, 102 points, 40 regulation wins, 254 goals for, 3.68 goals per game, and a league-low 169 goals against. They also have been at or near the top of the league in penalty kill percentage all season. Their current penalty kill percentage is 82.8%, good for fourth.
Sure, many of those rankings I listed above are credited to the offensive side of the Avalanche, but a lot of those stats are likely to be a lot lower if the goaltending doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain. It has done well a lot of the time, and other times, it does just enough to hold on. Sometimes, that’s all you need.
Going forward, however, the goaltending needs to continue its strong play as we inch closer to the postseason. Once we get to those games, we’ll see a lot of tough competition. We’ll get to see what Blackwood and Wedgewood are made of.
Another question fans will have as we enter the postseason is who Jared Bednar will put in net to start things off. Wedgewood certainly has earned some starts, but Bednar has also pointed out that he wants to get Blackwood in more games because he missed the start of the season. That makes me think that he’s more confident in Blackwood, the guy who they brought in to be the starter.
They’ll probably play the hot hand, especially with the fact that the team seems to play well with either of them. It’s not a situation where it’s obvious one guy is better than the other. That’s actually a good thing.
As everybody starts to get (and hopefully remain) healthy, we should see an uptick in quality shots. The team just got Gabriel Landeskog back Sunday, and they also have Nazem Kadri. Both guys can have a strong offensive role, leading to more chances.
That will take some pressure off of the team’s goalies, though they still have to play the best hockey they possibly can because teams know what they are, and nobody is going to play with their tail between their legs.