It feels like I’ve been doing the goalie breakdown thing for the better part of two weeks. I’d like to do it again but with a different approach. Some of these goalie numbers are just really fascinating especially when they’re backed by better on-ice performance and reaffirmed by a head coach who openly talks about the new goalies outright just being better than the two that were here to begin the season.
First, the simple stats: Starter Mackenzie Blackwood is 3-1-0 in four starts, surrendering exactly two goals in each game. He has a glowing .931 save percentage in the process. And backup Scott Wedgewood is 4-2-0, having made five starts and a relief appearance in his debut vs. Buffalo. Wedgewood has given up 11 goals in just over five and a half games, meaning he’s also hovering around two goals per game. As for the save percentage? Slightly ahead of his goalie mate with a .932.
They’ve been so unbelievably consistent that it’s almost hard to remember what it was like before they got here. I’ve said it several times but the Avs have two keepers here (literally). They’re just such a delightful bunch of goalies who support each other, have that chemistry as a pair, and are both locked in when the puck drops. You really can’t ask for anything more from your goalies.
The first-period issues the Avalanche had before they got here compared to now are night and day. It’s well-documented that the Avs have been one of the worst first-period teams all season. In the first month, it felt like two or three goals were scored on them each game before the first intermission. But it’s completely flipped on a dime now.
The 45 goals Colorado has surrendered in the first 20 minutes is second last in the NHL, trailing the San Jose Sharks (46). Blackwood and Wedgewood have only given up four in their nine combined starts. Wedgewood, in five starts, has two first-period goals against. And Blackwood, in four starts, is also at two. So how different is it?
Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen combined to allow 41 goals in the opening period in 27 starts. The Avs basically started each game knowing that an average of 1.5 goals would get past their goalie before the second period began. That is truly insane.
As for full-team save percentage, The Avs are fourth in the NHL and first in the Western Conference since Georgiev was shipped to San Jose. They have a .924 save percentage in eight games (6-2-0), scoring 30 goals but only giving up 17, including the empty netter in Vancouver. No team has more goals than Colorado in that span and no one is better than the Avs’ +13 goal differential.
Is this what having good goaltending feels like? Just ask Bednar.
“If you look at some of the games, we haven’t been great in the first period even since the goalie switch. But they’ve just been playing really, really well,” Bednar says of his new goalies. “They’re just giving us a chance to find our legs sometimes, which is great.”
Casey Mittelstadt
At what point do we start to really get worried about this rut he’s currently mired in? I’ve written a lot about how bad his November was statistically. But December is almost over and it hasn’t gotten any better — it’s going the other way.
Mittelstadt has five points, all assists, in 11 December games. That stat line is tied with Calvin de Haan. In a month where most of the team has improved its plus/minus, Mittelstadt is a team-worst -3. It’s pretty rough when compared to other guys in the top six like Artturi Lehkonen (+10), Nathan MacKinnon (+6), Mikko Rantanen (+6), and Valeri Nichushkin (+4).
What’s perhaps the worst stat of them all? Mittelstadt has four shots on goal in his last 11 games while averaging 16:10 of ice time.
Short one this week. Enjoy your holidays!
