Pressure falls on Avalanche as they aim to purge playoff ghosts

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Wild are not the only team in this playoff series with ghosts.

Their apparitions were just more obvious and easily purged than the phantoms that haunt the Colorado Avalanche.

When the Wild beat the Dallas Stars in six games in the opening stage of the National Hockey League playoffs, it ended a run of eight straight first-round exits by the Wild. After spending a fortune this winter to acquire ghost-buster Quinn Hughes, nobody in Minnesota will be happy if its Stanley Cup run ends now, less than halfway to the goal.

But the Wild are still farther than they’ve been since 2015, and a second-round defeat would give them an encouraging launching pad for next season.

For the Avalanche, however, anything short of an appearance in the Stanley Cup Final will be a crushing disappointment.

They were not only the runaway Presidents’ Trophy winners during the regular season, but since 2018 have won more games than any NHL team.

Over this season and the previous three, the Avalanche have averaged nearly 52 wins and 109 points. But they won only one playoff series the last three years, twice losing coin-flip matchups against Dallas after being upset by the Seattle Kraken in 2023’s first round.

The Avalanche are not afraid of their ghosts; Stanley Cup rings from 2022 make a pretty good shield.

Still, that was the only time since coach Jared Bednar arrived in Denver 10 years ago and soon elevated the Avalanche to a consistent, championship-caliber team that Colorado has been past the second round.

When Minnesota goalie Jesper Wallstedt said after Saturday’s 5-1 win that cleaved Colorado’s series lead to 2-1 that the pressure is actually on the Avalanche, there was truth in that.

Of course, pressure is on everyone in the Stanley Cup playoffs. There’s no guarantee for anyone that you’ll get this far again.

But the demand on Colorado to win – and the expectations that have made them so good annually – were reflected by Bednar’s sharp and honest criticism post-game on Saturday.

NHL reporters can be a tough crowd, but the hardest guy by far in the interview room was the Avalanche’s coach, who calmly noted that his players did not match the competitiveness and determination of the Wild.

“I saw it in some guys but not with others,” he said. “If you’re going to win a hockey game against a really good team in the playoffs, it's got to be everyone – and everyone all the time. It's not, you know, here and there from certain guys.”

He said “I don’t coach” determination.

“It's something that comes from within,” he explained. “We’ve got to look within a little bit here.”

Did we mention that this was the Avalanche’s first loss since April 11 – after winning their first six playoff games?

“I wouldn't say anything to you in a press conference that I'm not going to (say) or haven’t already said to our team,” Bednar said Sunday in an off-day media availability at the Avalanche’s hotel in Minneapolis. “Our guys know me. Like, I only have one way to coach. And I told them from Day 1 when I got here 10 years ago, that ‘I'm going to tell you the truth, whether you like it or not.’ And ... you might not like what I say or even how I say it, (but) I'll say it as respectfully as I can. I'm going to do the work and the breakdown and the preparation to give you the message that I think is correct, and then what they do with it after that, it’s up to them. And that's just kind of the way I operate there.

“I'm never going to demean our guys, but they're going to get the truth, good and bad, because I think that's the only way to operate. They have to trust me in what I do, and they’ve got to know that I'm giving them the truth, that I'm not selling them a line. And when I see a thing a certain way – they may even agree or disagree with it at times – there's no secrets with me and our team, and hopefully them with me. I think, you know, that's just the way we conduct our business and always have and will continue to.”

It was an elegant, thorough declaration about ideals and standards, a culture that so many NHL teams two, three or six rungs down the ladder from the Avalanche are trying to construct.

Remember, this is the team of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, Devon Toews and Gabrial Landeskog, the organization built by president Joe Sakic and managed by Chris MacFarland. A team whose 121 regular-season points were more than the year when Colorado won its last Cup.

“If we don’t perform the way we’re supposed to, he’s going to let us know,” Toews told reporters on Sunday. “That’s what makes him such a great coach and us such a great team – we understand what’s needed from us and what’s expected from us. Jared does a good job of laying that out and letting us know and breaking it down when it’s not good.”

Bednar said Saturday that video of Game 3 would not lie, and apparently the truth was obvious when Avalanche players saw it packaged for them the next day, just before their coach met the media.

“Everyone coming into that meeting may have similar opinions as to what happened last night or they may have completely different opinions as to what happened last night,” Bednar explained. “Some guys will kind of know what they did, personally, (but) might not know exactly what the overall picture is. And it takes a lot of work to kind of break through it and look at every aspect of our game, and then kind of pinpoint: What's the best way to get back on track and do the right thing?

“There'll be meetings after the meeting with our guys. Like, they'll have conversations today – this afternoon, dinner, whatever – to make sure that they're all on the same page. That’s where a guy like Landy (Landeskog) and Mac (MacKinnon), they really help with that, sort of reselling my message or adding to that message. But I think when you come out of a meeting after a game like that, now everyone has clarity, you know? And like I said, they'll agree with it to varying degrees, but it will get them as close as possible to being on the same page for tomorrow.”

Game 4 is Monday night.

It seems remarkable that Bednar, who is from Yorkton, Sask., and coached more NHL wins than anyone over the last eight years, has never been part of a Team Canada staff. He hasn’t won the Jack Adams Award, either, and was not one of the three finalists for this season who were named last week.

He must have the trust of his talented players to coach the way he does.

Asked by a Denver reporter about the anxiousness Game 3 caused around the Avalanche and their fan base, and whether as a coach he should elevate or de-escalate it, Bednar said: “I think after last night, it's crank-up mode. It depends on the game, depends on your mistakes, depends on what you're doing. To me, it was pretty clear on why we lost and some of the things that we need to improve upon. (The Wild) cranked it up and went to a different level for Game 3 in somewhat of a must-win. And that's where the level is going to go for the rest of the series, and we've got to get there for tomorrow. So to me, it's dial-it-up time.”

ICE CHIPS – Neither team practised and the Wild did not make coach John Hynes or players available to the media. . . Bednar said injured Colorado players Josh Manson and Joel Kiviranta were skating Sunday and might be available for Game 4. . . The Avalanche coach is considering adjusting his forward lines for Monday to try to get more offence from Brock Nelson’s second unit. . . He is also considering changing his starting goalie after Mackenzie Blackwood replaced Scott Wedgewood in Game 3.