The Colorado Avalanche are now up 3-0 in the postseason series against the Los Angeles Kings. While those who haven’t paid attention to this series might think that players such as Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas have been taking control, most eyes are set on the goaltending. It’s even to the point where Kings head coach DJ Smith is giving the Avs netminder some high praise.
At this point, there is a strong sense that Wedgewood will continue to be between the pipes for the Avalanche for as long as possible. After all, why would you take him out as the starter? Though I had previously written about the idea of Mackenzie Blackwood getting a start just to keep Wedgewood fresh, I completely understand the reason to not do that.
I figured that Wedgewood could use a break and Colorado had that flexibility after going up 3-0 in the series, but it doesn’t appear that the team is going to go that direction, and I don’t blame them whatsoever. Truthfully, I’m confident in either of our goalies, as they’ve both had flashes (or better) this regular season, as well as last year.
Continuing to start Wedgewood is surely the right move made by Jared Bednar and it’s incredibly rewarding for him, too. Wedgewood entered this postseason having exactly zero career playoff starts. Though he saw time in four previous games over two years, none of them were starts.
I have no doubt that Wedgewood will continue to dominate for the rest of this series. The Kings don’t appear to be much of a threat to the Avalanche. Colorado just needs to get things figured out offensively, and while Thursday night’s game was a great start to that, the Avs need to continue to lay the hammer down on the Kings.
It’s been an underwhelming series for guys such as Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas, Valeri Nichushkin, and others. Those three players mentioned have yet to record a goal in the series. If the Avs want to start dominating games, these players have to contribute by putting the puck in the net. I have no doubt that they’ll start to do that, but kudos to Kings goalie Anton Forsberg for preventing that from happening thus far.
Once the Avs start to put up more goals consistently, Wedgewood will be able to settle back a little bit. As of now, however, he’s been saving Colorado’s bacon.
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