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What the hell just happened to the Colorado Avalanche? This was a team with 55 wins in the regular season, 16 regulation losses, and 121 points good for the ninth most ever in a season. They had the player with the most goals in the league. They had two guys who finished top seven in points. They had probably the best defenseman in the league and arguably, I don't know if you guys agree, the best goalie in the league. I mean, he had the best save percentage and goals against average in Scott Wedgewood. And then on top of all that, they go into the trade deadline and they absolutely load up. They bring in Cadri. They bring in Nick Wah. They
bring in Brett Kulak, Nick Blankenberg, who didn't even play that much in the playoffs there. They go eight- one in the first two rounds and score 37 goals in nine games of the playoffs, which is crazy. And then despite all of that, they score just seven goals in round three against Vegas and get swept by a team that had 16 less wins and 26 less points than them. I don't know if we've ever seen a team that good get outplayed that badly. And I gotta ask you guys, what went wrong with Colorado? We'll start with you, Josh. What do you think it is? I think the Colorado Avalanche are probably wondering the same thing. Like, what the hell just happened? But, you know, when you get uh like a victory this sort of one-sided
and stunning, I don't think it's ever one thing, right? I mean, I think injuries played a part. Um, goalending was a major discrepancy, but I think really what it came down to was coaching for me and the Colorado Avalanche could just not penetrate the middle of the ice. Like Vegas just boxed it up so well. They were so opportunistic and that's just exactly what John Tordella teams do, right? Like to me, this is the most stunning sweep in Stanley Cup playoff history since 2019 when the Columbus Blue Jackets swept the Juggernaut Tampa Bay Lightning. And obviously we know who was behind the bench for the Blue Jackets that year, John Tordella. So I mean it's really just incredible that it
happened, but I think we got to give a lot of credit to TORS and like getting those players to buy in quickly. And I mean look, this was already a good Vegas team even under Bruce Cassidy, especially like the underlying metrics were very strong. You know, they weren't getting goalending, but you bring Torsson in fresh mentality and he just gets those guys to believe in everything he's saying. And man, like Colorado just could not do anything. It just felt like every game they were they could gain the zone maybe and then were just circling the outside. And we've seen that so many times with our Toronto Maple Leafs in a series where, you know, they have all this Corsy but they're not actually
generating anything dangerous and then that just eventually wears on a team and I think by game four they just had no answers whatsoever and in their head and all like it snowballs like that, right? And when like two numbers that stand out to me talking about like the system that Vegas played in this series specifically, uh the Avalanche had like 58% shot attempts, 51% scoring chances. So even though they had a significant advantage of zone time and putting pucks towards the net, a lot of it was to the perimeter, a lot of it was to the outside to where even though that the Avalanche had so much more time with the puck or in the offensive zone, the chances were close to 50/50 in the series, which is very stark. And
certainly when you think about John Tordella teams and what they excel at and specifically what this Vegas team what their strengths could be as well the entire time the upside of Vegas was this great defensive team with this great defensive structure and going up against a team like Colorado it was like okay can it actually work to that level and in the series it worked basically as good as you could have hoped for a Vegas team going into the series. Like they had better results against the Avalanche this year versus the Anaheim Ducks. Like isn't that crazy to think about? Crazy. Yeah. I think the crazy thing too is I absolutely agree they got out coached given the circumstances
not only of the fact that Tortoella comes in with eight games left and manages to not only reboot this Golden Knights team but again out coach a guy in Bedar who's won a cup who's been one of the longest tenur coaches in the league so far um with Colorado. Like Tors hasn't been to a cup final since he went with the Lightning in I think 2004. So, as good of a coach as he is, like if you just look at the metrics of Bedar versus Tors, I think you obviously are going to give the edge to Bednar. And that's without the fact that Tors came in with eight games left. Like the fact that he came in and has done what he's done with the team that he's had uh is incredible. So, yeah, I think the coaching and
I feel like that picture of Benar sitting at the poker table in Vegas after game three is like the most telling thing. Like he just had he had no answers. Yeah, that's what I was about to say. If you there's that photo, but if you want to look at getting out coached too, how about you look at getting out coached like from a media standpoint where you've got Torts winning a series and he doesn't even go to the podium and then you have Bedar after going down three nothing in this series saying like at least his wallet's better.
Yeah, exactly. And he's saying like, "Yeah, this is about as bad as it gets." So, we are down in the dumps. Like he was saying that as low as it gets. Like that's a tough quote. Yeah. I don't know how you he knew it was over. That's the definition of getting out coached. Like that's a guy who's getting out coach right there. Um, so coaching is a great one. Kyle, you've got something else here. Why what went wrong with the avalanche? It's you hate using like the injuries excuse. Anytime it bring you bring it up, people kind of groan a little bit, but it's a legitimate factor here.
Played a huge part. You mentioned it earlier like injuries are a huge factor and specifically the two players off the top that you think about and Kale Mar not playing at 100% the entire playoffs but then missing a couple games in this series trying to fight through it and come back and then just the dagger of Nate McKinnon blocking a shot in an awkward place trying to fight through it in game three and then coming back for game four but just wasn't at that same level. And so when you think about what makes the Avalanche great and then you think about the struggles that they're already having and then their two biggest game breakers are battling injuries, that's a huge factor in terms
of why this series was so short specifically like if they were both fully healthy, could it have been a similar result in terms of Vegas going through? Very real possibility. But in terms of the result that we specifically had, the sweep and in this kind of decisive fashion in terms of just completely taking like the entire t creativity and what made the avalanche such a juggernaut away from them like I think that is specifically going towards like the injuries route and I think specifically Kale Mar like you look at his numbers over the playoffs and it just wasn't at that peak performance that you expect from him in a postseason especially like as a guy that has been so great in playoffs before. Um, that's something that I really look at in addition to the out
coaching factor that we talked about, the defensive structure that Vegas played with as well and capitalizing on those chances. And then you have to incorporate the goalending in there as well. Not as like when you have those chances close to 50/50, a lot of it is going to come down to goalending. And Carter Hart was just simply way better in certain circumstances than Wedgwood or Blackwood when either of them were in the net. Blackwood was great in game four. I'll give him that. Yeah, just going back to Mar like it was tough to watch because you know it's probably the shoulder that's bugging him and he's a guy who is always in shooting mentality, right?
Like he wants to put everything on net like he's willing to just you know drive the middle and shoot and he has that great shot but he think about like trying to break through the defensive structure driving to the middle the bum shoulder. It's Yeah. No thank you. I like I've never watched him play where he's deferring so much like he was in those last two games that he played like you know he would maybe make a move and then in a spot where you think he could shoot like I think of like in the gold medal game where he's coming down that wing and just rips the perfect like shot blocker side like you weren't you would see oh just defer to Devonte who great player and all but not much of a shooting threat compared to
speaks to the right like the feet are fine he's still working in terms of the feet but he doesn't have that ability to finish in the same way that he had or is more differential because of the injury or is unable to break to the inside or break through contact. All these things that are a big reason why they weren't able to get inside as often when like you can point to like the shot attempts and like the scoring chances. I look back to the previous series when they went up against a very good Minnesota Wild team that a lot of people had pegged as a Stanley Cup contender, probably in a higher tier than Vegas all season long like we kind of did over the course of the season. And you look at
the shot attempt share, it was like 59%. The scoring chances were in that range as well, 58 59%. That's the stark difference that you see in the results here. Obviously, the defensive structure is the biggest reason why, but then your star players not being able to break to the inside partially because of those injuries, I think, is a huge factor here that even though it sucks to mention injuries as a factor, is a legitimate thing to bring up here for the Avalanche. Yeah. I mean, watching McKinnon, too, like in game three, like where he's trying to come back, like it's it was difficult to watch. I felt the pain. a player that relies on his speed as much as he does and his quickness to see him turn into that it's
as if it's like he was 45 years old out there like he aged 10 years overnight. If we're going to talk about injuries though I do want to bring up a couple hypotheticals in that case. What do we think the outcome of the series is with a fully healthy ABS team? Fully well they win. I think in that result you have to say fully healthy both teams right because the thing we didn't mention missed the first two games right and then the conversation becomes well Kale Mar and Nate McKinnon probably much more valuable to that team than Mark Stone as great as he is that's a whole different conversation fully healthy both teams I think is a completely different conversation because also who's fully healthy when you get to a
Western Conference final true nobody but in terms of fully healthy I think we saw what the Avalanche did all season long we saw what they did earlier in the playoffs and the previous round against a very good Minnesota team. But if ifs and butts were candies and nuts, etc., etc., right? So, it is just stunning to me though, like all sort of playoffs in our like playoff analysis post we had going on at the score. Like I was just giving rave reviews to this avalanche depth. Like especially up front, it's like man like line one to four like they come at you in waves. How is anyone going to stop them? And we just it disappeared. Like guys like Marty Nas, he was super quiet. Like Brock Nelson didn't do much at all. Like I'm
really surprised like those guys weren't able to step up. And that's like the biggest thing in terms of what makes Colorado is the offensive zone pressure, the shot attempts, but then they get you to abandon your structure. And once you get out of structure, once things start to become chaotic in your defensive zone, that's when they really like make their money in the offensive zone and create their goals and all of that stuff. And Vegas didn't stray from their structure. Like I think that's the hardest thing going against a team like Colorado is yeah you know you're going to have you can do it in the first period you can do it in the second period maybe you make it through game one but can you do
that game over game stay in your structure withstand those block shots or that zone time all the tiring elements of going up a team like that and make it through to the other side to where you're frustrating Colorado to where you're winning these games you're converting on your own chances like that's the big factor here that other teams weren't as successful going up against Colorado and Vegas with Tortoella there, fresh voice coming in just before the playoffs. like I don't think it's that different a team versus what Bruce Cassidy was like going back to the regular season as you mentioned great underlying numbers like a top five top three team in terms of expected goal share but when it came to like the specific head-to-head defensive structure I think
the ability to stay in that structure with big credit to John Tordella is probably the biggest factor why yeah absolutely and then the other thing I was thinking about touching on the injuries one more time that the argument has absolutely no weight given the circumstances of Vegas But in an is if is this is a year where there's no Olympics, how did the Colorado Avalanche fare? Cuz they did send a lot of guys, but you know who also sent a lot of guys? The Vegas Golden Knights. So I saw that getting thrown around a bit. Oh, if Kale Marathon were out there for Canada, this is a completely different series. And I mean like even Marty Nas went down almost went down with an injury too.
They were missing some contribution from those guys due to the injuries. Vegas sent like off the top of my head I can think about at least the same amount of players if not more than Colorado. So, it's just at the end of the day, it's about kind of the battle testing and you know, having a guy like Tordella and having a system like that in the playoffs compared to this Avalanche team that obviously we didn't think all year they could get shut down. And what does Vegas do? They absolutely shut them down. So, it's a hell of a series for one side uh for Colorado. I don't where do they go from here? Where when you build a team as good as this in the regular season that performs as well even in the first two
rounds, what's the next move? I really don't know. I'm going to ask. you mentioned the most uh most shocking sweep since. Well, what happened for that other team that got swept right afterwards went into a Stanley Cup. So, like I think this is a circumstance where you need to evaluate some things certainly, but you can't stray away from what made you so successful. And I mean, Colorado's got some cap constraints like they're going to have to get rid of some guys. Like on paper, I think they're going to be a worse team next year, but again, we see this all the time. Like I always remember the Washington Capitals winning back-to-back presence trophies, not going anywhere in the playoffs, and
then the year after they lose a few guys, and then they just go win it. So it's not over for the Avalanche, but I think the big conversation now was like the Jared Bedner one. Is it time for a change, David Carl's there at the University of Denver, like that's an interesting one. If you're going to pivot, that's the pivot. You're not just canning Bednar and hope, oh, is Jay Woodcraftoft the solution? You know what I mean? Like no offense to Jay Woodcraft. I do I like this trend that we have solidified though where if you get swept by a torch team the next what you actually maybe it's a good omen.
You win two straight cups actually. So congrats on the next two years Colorado Avalanche.
