Avalanche coach
Jared Bednar was much calmer Saturday than he was after the 3-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday that ended their six-game playoff winning streak and trimmed their lead in the Stanley Cup second-round series to 2-1.
Game 4 is on tap Sunday at T-Mobile Arena.
HERE’S HIS REACTION on
NHL.com after the game.
The coaches were still going through video of the game, he said, in preparation for a 5 p.m. PT team meeting.
“It’s a tougher challenge than we’ve ever faced, I think, in Vegas being a top team and playing the right way,” Bednar said. “Again, the message is going to be there’s not going to be easy ice out there. You’re going to have to go and earn every inch of ice that you get, and in order to create offense you have to win battles in order to do that and be in the right positions on the ice and have the right desperation and tenacity on the puck in order to create offense, and that’s what we have to get to as a group.”
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The schedule, all times MT
Game 1 --– Avalanche 7-1
Game 2 -- Avalanche 3-2 (OT)
Game 3 -- Vegas 3-2
Sunday -- at Vegas, 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday -- at Avalanche, 7 p.m.
*Thursday -- at Vegas, TBD
*Saturday -- at Avalanche, TBD
* If necessary
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The Avalanche haven’t played well in the past five periods (not counting overtime in Game 2), where they’ve spent way too much time in their own end and been outshot 74-32.
The Avalanche have had a particularly difficult time getting through the neutral zone and using their biggest strengths, speed and puck possession.
Bednar called out the team’s leadership group and top players after the game, saying Vegas’ top players were getting the better of them, which obviously needs to change.
“I think we all know what we need to do better and we all know that we need to be better,” captain
Gabriel Landeskog said Saturday. “At the end of the day we’re still up 2-1 in the series and that was our first loss in 2 1-2 weeks. Having said that, we need to learn from it and we have to be better and make sure we bounce back tomorrow, it’s as simple as that.
“It’s the playoffs, we all need to step up and leadership definitely needs to step up. That’s the way it is in any game following a loss.
Asked Saturday which players he liked Friday, Bednar responded:
“I liked Grubi (goalie
Philipp Grubauer).” After pausing, he said, “I liked
Val (Nichushkin).” He also said the newly-constricted fourth line of
Carl Soderberg, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and
Kiefer Sherwood played well at times.
Bednar was asked about the absence of
Nazem Kadri, who has served five games of his eight-game suspension and is awaiting the decision of his appeal to an independent arbitrator following a hearing Friday.
“No question we miss Naz, he’s been a big part of our team all year, a second-line center we can rely on to play against lines like the
(William) Karlsson line, but we’ve had other guys step up,” he said.
“The
(Tyson) Jost line in the past has been real good at doing that; it was good in Game 1. The last couple of games our whole team has taken a dip, but I’m confident that those guys can get the job done but no question we miss a guy like Naz in a series like this playing against a deep team with a deep group of forwards.
“We have to earn the ice that we get. They’re checking the right way, we’ve checked the right way for the better part of the year and we’ve got to get back to that. In order to create offense against a team that’s about working and being physical and putting numbers at the puck, you got to get to the inside of the ice and you got to be willing to go into those hard areas and win some battles. There’s no easy play out there, there’s no easy ice out there.”
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