LAS VEGAS — The Avalanche’s first contest of the 2024-25 season looked far too similar to Game 1 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
What followed in the spring may be an indicator of what’s to come. The Avalanche made defensive mistakes in an 8-4 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, but both goaltenders couldn’t make the saves needed to give Colorado a chance Wednesday night.
Alexandar Georgiev allowed five goals on 16 shots. Justus Annunen replaced him for the third period and yielded a pair of goals on four shots, and that didn’t include another one that beat him a second after a Vegas player was called for a penalty, negating what would have been another.
“The number of scoring chances we gave up was not an issue,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Every time we got ourselves back in the game, we made another mistake. And every mistake we made ends up in the back of our net. Literally every single one.”
The last time Georgiev had a game like this was Game 1 in Winnipeg. He yielded seven goals on 23 shots in a 7-6 loss to the Jets. His teammates said they needed to tighten up defensively, but there were also just some bad goals for the goaltender to allow.
It turned out that Colorado wasn’t the team in that wild shootout that needed to worry about its goaltender — even though the other side had the guy who was weeks away from claiming the Vezina Trophy. Georgiev snapped out of the funk immediately, allowing eight goals over the next four games as the Avalanche bulldozed the Jets and advanced to the second round.
That resiliency in the immense glare of the postseason spotlight earned Georgiev praise and respect from teammates and coaches. He may need to draw on that experience again, even if it’s a little sooner in this season than he would have wanted.
“He’s got to respond back,” Avs defenseman Cale Makar said. “I think it falls back on us a D-corps, we’ve got to make sure we are better for him. Let him see some shots, and then not letting them get so many high-quality opportunities.”
One big difference between the aftermath of Game 1 in Winnipeg and Game 1 in Las Vegas: Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen combined to score 12 goals in those five games against the Jets. Neither of them is available to help right the ship this time.
So correcting some of those defensive mistakes becomes even more paramount as the Avs get set to begin a four-game homestand Saturday with the Columbus Blue Jackets at Ball Arena. One of the two areas that Bednar said needed to be better for Colorado to improve its goal prevention this season was in rush coverage.
The Avs were strong defending the rush in recent years, but that dipped in 2023-24. And that didn’t get fixed in the opener against the Golden Knights, either.
“You can’t spend three weeks talking about specific things that you know you have to improve on, and then go give up those chances,” Bednar said. “Vegas is a team that, they were not top-three or top-five in the league last year in creating rush opportunities, but they were third in finishing them. They don’t need a lot of chances. They capitalize on the chances you give them. So it’s got to be better.”
The Avs’ big guns fired on opening night but were also part of the problems without the puck. The defensive work will need to be better, and the Georgiev who showed up for Game 2 at Canada Life Centre in Manitoba needs to find his way back ASAP.
“It’s always tough (to pull the goaltender),” Bednar said. “I want to give our guys leeway to bounce back from mistakes (during games), but goalies don’t always get that opportunity.
“It’s never easy to pull the goalie, because oftentimes it’s not just their play, it’s the team’s play in front of them.”
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Originally Published: October 10, 2024 at 9:59 a.m.
