GDT: Avalanche vs Rangers Tuesday January 14th, 2025 @7:00PM (Emergency GDT) Our blue is the superior blue.

[Bensch88]

Mac knew exactly who to thank first. What a shift.

Also Blackwood is becoming a Fan favorite very very fast. What a steal this trade has been so far. Mittelstadt not so much....

 

[Miri]

Should have just re-signed Kadri. Now we gonna stress about a 2C again. It’s been a vicious cycle

How is Kadri doing these days anyway? Maybe Calgary would flip him for Mittlestadt? :-P

 

[Jasenr]

My 2 cents:

-PTSD kicking strong with Rangers having atleast 3 good chances in the start which would have been goals with Fourgiev
-Luckily we scored first and were on the drivers seat
-Unluckily we got a PP where Avs suck, Makar at the blueline ready to score and holy s*** its in our net..
-Downhill from there until in the second "nice" pass from Malinski to Mittlestadt in the Rangers end who omg its in our net...
-Casey was benched after that and I saw Mikko centering LOC and Kivi, so Blendar full on..
-I was so ready for Avs to lose. They didnt look like a comeback team as before, but luckily they got their act together with goalie pulled
-LoC proved himself in the OT and Avs win

Without Blackwood Avs would have been taken behind the shed. I hope there is some extra skating next morning...

 

[Metallo]

At least they know

f***ing solid interview. You can tell that Toews is a student of the game. Would not surprise me he could coach if he wanted to, the knowledge and communication skills are there.

 

[LOFIN]

Good for Bedsy and Toews calling out the horrible effort.

Like I said earlier, I hope we are done with giving Mittelstadt the rope. He was demoted for a few games as a message, then got his #2C spot back and there was absolutely zero effect on his play. From now on, he should be centering the 4th line and only if he himself starts showing significant improvement, should he be promoted again.

Drouin-MacK-Lehky
Colton-Pärssinen-Rantanen
Kiviranta-Kelly-LOC
Innala-Mittelstadt-whoever

 

[Hesher]

It's about time Bednar called the guys out. This was a complete and utter disaster, with George in net it would have been like 6-1 Rangers midway through the game. All hail Blackwood!

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

Terrible terrible game. How many breakaways Rangers had? Lost count. It was that many.

We keep playing terrible hockey yet we get bailed out by the great goaltender. Poor guy.

We've been on a poor form for a long time now. Changes have to be made.

 

[Spilot23]

What happened to Malinski yesterday? It seems like he was either hurt or incredibly super bad. I only watched the last 3 min. You can thank me anyway not LOC or Blackwood

 

[Bender]

It's crazy when you think we've had slightly above average to putrid goaltending for so long that when absolutely stellar goaltending happens, we are in complete disbelief...

Lol it's been awhile

 

[sethro109]

What happened to Malinski yesterday? It seems like he was either hurt or incredibly super bad. I only watched the last 3 min. You can thank me anyway not LOC or Blackwood

He was just super bad. He was still skating good, so I doubt he's hurt. I don't know why he's regressed so badly over the past few weeks. He's making brain dead passes and is just giving the puck away in front of our own net. Very disappointing after the incredible start he had.

 

[Tommy Shelby]

Everyone surprised by Malinski as if he was ever good. He's at best, adequate as a 6D. Anything more and he gets exposed pretty badly.

 

[chet1926]

Terrible terrible game. How many breakaways Rangers had? Lost count. It was that many.

We keep playing terrible hockey yet we get bailed out by the great goaltender. Poor guy.

We've been on a poor form for a long time now. Changes have to be made.

They especially can't continue to play the way that have 3 of the last 4 games. Outside of the Minnesota game, they haven't really done anything well and look completely disinterested. In my personal opinion this is what they've done all year. They are lazy hockey team that can't be bothered, if it isn't easy they don't do it.

We rag people like Mitts and Malinski, but really it's everyone outside of Blackwood and Wedgewood. 29, 8 and 96 (especially him, 96 is other worldly bad right now) have been extra poor lately. And if your top core leaders can't be bothered how can you expect the rest of the team to be bothered. You can't.

So it starts at the top. 29, 8 and 96 have to be the best players on the ice giving the most effort. If they do that, the rest will follow that lead.

 

[Alienblood]

He isn't an NHL player.

 

[Bonzai12]

I don't watch many games (no Altitude here) but that's the first one I've watched in a REALLY long time where the Avs goaltender stole a game from the other team.

It's literally been years since I have seen that happen.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Everyone surprised by Malinski as if he was ever good. He's at best, adequate as a 6D. Anything more and he gets exposed pretty badly.

He was doing fine until Manson went down and he had to step up and play top 4 minutes. Everything started going downhill from there.

I agree, he can be fine as a 6D. That means we need our top 4 of Makar/Toews/Girard/Manson healthy and we need to acquire a better partner for Malinski on the third pair.

 

[LTCPain75]

I hit the sack at the end of the 2nd period with the Rangers up 2-1. When I wake up and check my phone, the Avalanche won 3-2 in OT! Gotta be a trend!

 

[Jasenr]

They especially can't continue to play the way that have 3 of the last 4 games. Outside of the Minnesota game, they haven't really done anything well and look completely disinterested. In my personal opinion this is what they've done all year. They are lazy hockey team that can't be bothered, if it isn't easy they don't do it.

We rag people like Mitts and Malinski, but really it's everyone outside of Blackwood and Wedgewood. 29, 8 and 96 (especially him, 96 is other worldly bad right now) have been extra poor lately. And if your top core leaders can't be bothered how can you expect the rest of the team to be bothered. You can't.

So it starts at the top. 29, 8 and 96 have to be the best players on the ice giving the most effort. If they do that, the rest will follow that lead.

The line chemistry for the 2nd line is so bad most of the time.

When I saw Colton-Mitts-Rants I was like o boy. Rants needs quick puck carrier/playmaker on the line to succeed and Colton isnt that even though his quick. Mitts at the moment is just slow. Nothing was working for them before Mitts benching.

Colton is poor mans Lehky and needs others to do the passing so he can skate around to be in the right spot to snipe a goal like Lehky.

You need to have players in the same line who create a good combination and what we saw today was always going to fail.

I definately would bump Colton on the top with Druin and Mack since Mack needs speed beside him so his not always attacking alone and needing to turn to pass back.

Make the 2nd line Lehky-Parssinen-Rants. Nice forechecking with L and P and Rants sniping the goals. Tonight Parssinen showed he has the moves.

 

[dahrougem2]

Again from the eye test I liked Parssinen but he only played 9:58. Either Bednar is taking it very slow with him or Bednar sees something on a shift-by-shift basis he detests and will only play him if he has to.

Last night he only got to 9:58 because of Mittelstadt's benching.

 

[Ceremony]

Hard to pick a favourite moment but I liked Mittelstadt being dispossessed at the blue line by a guy on his knees who didn't have a stick.

 

[niwotsblessing]

He was doing fine until Manson went down and he had to step up and play top 4 minutes. Everything started going downhill from there.

I agree, he can be fine as a 6D. That means we need our top 4 of Makar/Toews/Girard/Manson healthy and we need to acquire a better partner for Malinski on the third pair.

Malinski has played 68 NHL games, he's almost finished his rookie season.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Malinski has played 68 NHL games, he's almost finished his rookie season.

And?

 

[Avsfan1921]

They especially can't continue to play the way that have 3 of the last 4 games. Outside of the Minnesota game, they haven't really done anything well and look completely disinterested. In my personal opinion this is what they've done all year. They are lazy hockey team that can't be bothered, if it isn't easy they don't do it.

We rag people like Mitts and Malinski, but really it's everyone outside of Blackwood and Wedgewood. 29, 8 and 96 (especially him, 96 is other worldly bad right now) have been extra poor lately. And if your top core leaders can't be bothered how can you expect the rest of the team to be bothered. You can't.

So it starts at the top. 29, 8 and 96 have to be the best players on the ice giving the most effort. If they do that, the rest will follow that lead.

Eh, I just don’t agree here for multiple reasons. 96 is a write off in terms of effort but the other two are very rarely lazy. They lead by example all the time and are playing copious minutes on top of that.

The other reason is talent level, and this is where 96 does apply. He can get away with it and get the ice time he does because he contributes regularly on offence. If LOC or kivi or any other bottom six player played with his effort level they’d be on waivers. You have to make allowances for super talented players and that’s ok as long as there’s a balance, which the Avs have in that regard, imo.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Everyone surprised by Malinski as if he was ever good. He's at best, adequate as a 6D. Anything more and he gets exposed pretty badly.

Yeah I'm also not remotely surprised. He looked a little better to start the year, but he's a guy whose role just isn't a thing in the NHL anymore. He's an OFD who's at best above average offensively and horrible defensively. He's an easily exposable player so I'm not surprised about his regression from the start of the season.

 

[dahrougem2]

Hard to pick a favourite moment but I liked Mittelstadt being dispossessed at the blue line by a guy on his knees who didn't have a stick.

That killed me. How on earth are you so bad now that you can't beat a guy with no stick AND who fell?

 

[Pokecheque]

I dunno, frustrating as he is, the "otherworldy bad" Mikko Rantanen is currently 4th in league scoring (only nine points behind the league leader, Nathan MacKinnon), and tied for 5th in goals. And this is with the power play continuing to shit the bed and taking regular shifts with Casey Mittelstadt as his center.

I'm not sitting here saying he's been phenomenal, but he's really the least of their problems. The lack of scoring depth on even a good day, the continued struggles of guys like Mitts and Malinski, and of course, injuries are taking their toll.