The Colorado Avalanche have been one of the NHL's best teams over the past half decade or so, which makes their start to this season all the more surprising.
It's not just the fact that the Avalanche are 0-2, but the way they lost those games. First was an 8-4 road loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday, followed by a 6-4 home loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday. Following Saturday's action, Colorado ranks dead last in the league in goals allowed per game (7.00) and save percentage (.714).
No one has had a tougher start to the season than Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, who as a reminder, is in a contract year. The 28-year-old has a 7.75 goals against average and .680 save percentage through two games. Most importantly, he's been pulled twice already, first after allowing five goals on 16 shots against Vegas and then after allowing three goals on nine shots against Columbus.
For now, the Avs are sticking with Georgiev as their starter, though if he continues to put up stinkers, that could change in the future.
“I get that there’s a level of frustration, but (Georgiev) … he’s our guy,” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said, per the Denver Post. “He’s our starter. I have full faith that he has the ability, the talent, the work ethic to bounce back and win us hockey games. It’s a mental game right now, right? So we’ll regroup, and we have other areas of our game, too, that have to be better.”
Part of that commitment to Georgiev is due to the fact that the Avalanche simply don't have a better option right now. Backup Justus Annunen has appeared in relief of Georgiev in both games, but has just a 4.69 goals against average and .765 save percentage. He's also far less experienced than Georgiev, having just 20 NHL games and 15 starts under his belt.
Colorado is just two years removed from a Stanley Cup, and with Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar still in their primes, this team is set up to compete for a long time. To do so, however, the Avalanche need at least serviceable goaltending, which has simply not been the case to start the season.
