The Colorado Avalanche are desperate for a win, as they head into Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals against the Vegas Golden Knights down 3-0 in the series. A win on Tuesday night keeps them alive. A loss sends them home for the offseason.
Colorado’s goaltending has given them chance after chance in the series, but they have just been unable to help their guys protecting the net. Vegas has earned a lot of the goals they’ve gotten. Not many have been “easy.”
As for the Avs’ stars, well, Nathan MacKinnon is banged up now after getting a puck to the knee off of a shot. Cale Makar is still dealing with an upper-body injury, his shoulder to be more precise. It’s apparently bad enough where he could require surgery in the offseason. That’s not what you want to hear. Both ailments are devastating for the Avs but it means one thing.
It means that other players need to step up. Even though head coach Jared Bednar stated that he’d take MacKinnon over anyone at less than 100%, you still need your depth pieces to step up. The Avalanche have prided themselves on their depth this season leading to the Presidents’ trophy. Now it’s time for those players to step up in the biggest stage of the season yet.
Some fans actually want Stan Kroenke to take action and let Bednar, the second-longest tenured head coach in the NHL, go. They want him fired. However, that’s not going to happen. It would be silly. Fans won’t want excuses. They don’t want to hear that the team lost because they were banged up.
The fact of the matter is that some of the team’s stars just haven’t been up to the task in this particular series, and some have been underwhelming the entire postseason in terms of points. After dominating the Los Angeles Kings and then getting past the Minnesota Wild, these Western Conference Final games just haven’t been to the standard of Avs hockey.
Excuses won’t help anyone. The fact is that if the Avs lose on Tuesday night, they’re done. It could be the end of the road for someone such as Brent Burns, who is still chasing a Stanley Cup. All of the team’s hard work ending short of a Stanley Cup victory is devastating. It’s a failure. The team would tell you the same exact thing. The main goal of sports is to win its championship.
If Colorado fails again, it will sit poorly with the team and their fans across the world.
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