Sputtering out of the gate of a fresh season to and 0-3 record feels bad. There is no way around the fact that the Colorado Avalanche have been disappointing. Surrendering 20 goals in the first three games is a team record, the kind you don't want to set.
Alexandar Georgiev looks like he's in his own head and fighting against a collapse he seems to feel coming. I don't think it's unfair to say that his job is on the line, and that sounds crazy to say less than a week into the season.
I am a Georgiev guy, and it hurts me to write that opinion in any article. But a .790 SV% is abysmal in any context. Alexandar Georgiev played his best game on Monday night, and it was still a struggle. On the plus side he did not get swapped out for backup Justus Annunen on Monday night, as he had in the previous two starts.
But sadly, that might be because Annunen hasn't fared much better in relief. In fact, Annunen has an even worse SV% at .765, albeit in a smaller sample size. The Avalanche know that they have a problem between the pipes. Otherwise they would not have nabbed Kaapo Kahkonen off of waivers.
Alexandar Georgiev's rough start would undoubtedly be at the top of the list of issues if you polled Avalanche fans this morning, and for good reason. Unfortunately, the team played all-around awful defense against the Islanders.
Cale Makar owned up to his own poor play, even perhaps to an exaggerated extent. He took the blame postgame, like a leader should. Coach Bednar was blunt as well, calling the game terrible. He also noted that he thought at times the guys were trying to "Cheat the game on offense" which so often leads to breakdowns the other way.
Still, I am a relentlessly positive person. A dismal beginning does not mean a turnaround is impossible. It is far too early in the calendar to press the panic button. They certainly need to address the issue in net sooner rather than later. But there are no quick fixes aside trying Annunen or Kahkonen right now.
The problem is that the trade market is pretty much non-existent at the moment. It is too early for other teams to be willing to deal a real quality goalie. If the Avalanche front office made offers right now they would likely have to take a lopsided risk and deal a star player, and they would still be getting a questionable return.
Aside from that, the Avalanche need to get healthy before they can accurately assess where the team is from a potential standpoint. We knew the situations with Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin were going to be tough. The club has given every indication they are willing to wait on those guys. Artturi Lehkonen is still a bit of a mystery as well.
Beyond those missing core forwards, the Avalanche now have a Jonathan Drouin injury to consider, as well as Devon Toews, who they hope is only day-to-day. Drouin suffered something to the upper body in the Avalanche’s opener, and is being re-evaluated. We do know he won't be available for Wednesday against Boston.
Not having four top six forwards in the lineup is brutal on any team, regardless of what's going on in net. As someone who is going to be watching no matter what, I can say I'm still excited about Colorado's rookies.
Calum Ritchie, for instance, tallied his first ever NHL goal to open the scoring on Monday. It was a pretty play too, an aggressive scorer's smooth move to the net to convert a Josh Manson pass into an easy looking tap-in. That kind of instinct helped Ritchie light it up for the Oshawa Generals last year, and got him selected 27th overall in 2023.
Being completely honest, Ritchie has seemed the most like a rookie of Colorado's fresh-faced forwards thus far. That doubtless has to do with the way they are trying to use him, and the expectations that come with it. I say this from isolating his play as a viewer, and watching some decision-making.
Thankfully I have really liked what I've seen from Ivan Ivan and Nikolai Kovalenko respectively. Ivan Ivan and Nikolai Kovalenko might have less prospect accolades, but they both have the look of solid NHL regulars to me.
Ivan Ivan is a real grab your lunchbox and go to work kind of guy. He's understandably slotted in as a fourth line body, but he is all effort when he does get ice-time. He stood out a lot in Saturday's game against Columbus. The fact that he got inserted on the powerplay unit in that game, and notched his own NHL first assist, feeding Nathan MacKinnon, says a ton.
Nikolai Kovalenko is the only one of the three players to not record a point yet. Even so, he looks like a smart player to my eyes. Currently, he is actually leading the Avalanche in the xGF%. This is a real stat-nerd number in advanced metrics: but in simple terms, it stands for Expected Goals For Percentage.
What it actually tracks is puck possession and how a player is impacting their team's offensive flow. In other words, are they getting the puck into good position for themselves, and their teammates, that then generates quality chances?
Sure, you'd be justified in saying that the sample size is too small to mean much now. But I still really like the metric as a major component of offensive IQ and effectiveness. I love the stat for assessing both effort and decision-making skills.
If Kovalenko is able to keep working hard like he has been, I think he might have the best chance to stick around with the big club when they are eventually healthy. He's a heavier body than someone like Calum Ritchie, and is 24 to Ritchie's 19. Kovalenko has been playing against grown men in Russia for years.
Provided they have the luxury to develop Ritchie, I think that's what the organization would prefer. The tough outcome for someone like Tyson Jost, who was placed on waivers by Carolina on opening night, might ring in management's memory. Jost was once a 10th overall pick of Colorado in 2016 - but after the Avs dealt him at the deadline in 2022, he's bounced around the AHL/NHL fringe for a few teams.
The Avalanche know that they need some positive results ASAP. It isn't uncommon for teams with high expectations to start slow. One need only look at last year's Western Conference Champions, the Edmonton Oilers, to find another surprising 0-3 record. However, another team's misery hardly makes our own more palatable.
Avalanche fans should not despair yet. Not only does Edmonton's bad start from last season prove drastic changes in fortune happen, but so does Colorado's own history of success. In the 2022 season, when the Avalanche last won the Stanley Cup, they started a woeful 1-4-1.