Avalanche Must Fix Goaltending Before it Sinks Title Chances

With just one game left, the Avs have dropped four of their last five, giving up a total of 26 goals in those losses. Top goaltender Alexandar Georgiev has been in the midst of the struggles, as he is pretty much the only legitimate goaltending option the team has entering the playoffs. For as sharp as the Avalanche offense has been all season, the goaltending is killing them right now – and that doesn’t bode well if the Avs don’t want to get bounced in the first round of the playoffs again.

Avalanche Can’t Stop Anybody

After racking up a nine-game winning streak in the middle of March, the Avs were poised to make a run to the top spot in the Western Conference. The schedule was set up for them to make a charge past some of the conference’s other powerhouses, as they were facing a glut of playoff teams. Nearly the opposite happened. The Avalanche have won just three of their last 10 games, and two of those are against the Wild – who have since been eliminated from playoff contention.

The issue during this cold spell has clearly been with the goaltending and defense. Colorado has given up 36 goals in the last eight games. The most recent collapse was Sunday, when the Avs took a 3-0 lead into the third period against Vegas and wound up losing 4-3 in overtime. It’s not like there’s much time to fix this. They have to close the season against the Oilers – a team that blitzed them 6-2 less than two weeks ago – on April 18.

Of course, not all of the blame falls on the goaltending, but the overwhelming majority certainly has to. Entering Sunday’s games, the Avalanche have given up the ninth-fewest turnovers in the NHL. That means a lot of it comes down to goaltending – and Georgiev has 62 starts this season. He has been in the crease for the bulk of the minutes in 2023-24, and he has to because there is virtually no depth at the position. Justus Annunen and Ivan Prosvetov account for just 19 starts through the team’s 81 games, meaning a lot of the pressure for the recent flood of goals has to fall on Georgiev.

Georgiev Needs Help

The Avs brought Georgiev to Denver in a draft-day trade back in 2022. The team was coming off winning its third Stanley Cup in large part due to the efforts of goaltender Darcy Kuemper – who was essentially a one-year rental before he left for the Washington Capitals in free agency. There’s no question that Georgiev is a durable option that can eat tons of minutes. In his first five seasons with the New York Rangers, he played a total of 7,001 minutes in 129 games. The Avalanche have not been shy about putting him to work, as he’s played 7,277 minutes in 124 games in just two seasons in Colorado.

All those minutes helped him lead the NHL with 40 wins last season, and he leads the league once again with 38 this season. But the problem isn’t the durability. It’s the inconsistency – and the rotten timing of the inconsistency. Georgiev is just 1-4 in April, giving up 22 goals in those five games. That puts his goals-against average (GAA) this month at 5.21, and his save percentage (SV%) is a sputtering .853. His recent funk has put his GAA over 3.00 on the season, and that’s not something that’s going to win you many playoff rounds, let alone a Stanley Cup.

Georgiev had a breakout season in 2022-23, setting career marks in every significant category during his first season as a full-time starter. He was even solid in the opening round loss to the Seattle Kraken, but that consistency has escaped him in 2023-24. Annunen has improved as a backup (2.35 GAA, .925 SV%), but it’s hard to hand the reins over to a 23-year-old that’s played in just 17 NHL games. This is Georgiev’s job, even if that reliability might be in question. Knowing he’s been shaky means there might need to be adjustments made up front.

What Needs to Change Entering Playoffs

This has been one of the most memorable regular seasons in Avalanche history. Nathan MacKinnon has shredded the team’s record book, notching his first 50-goal season while he closes in on 140 points. He also had a pair of 19-game point streaks – something no NHLer has ever done before – and scored a point in the team’s first 32 home games. That’s a feat no one has accomplished in 35 years when it was accomplished by a pair of all-time greats in Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. Mikko Rantanen had another 100-point season, and Cale Makar has already set career highs for assists (68) and points (89).

However, the bad taste from last year’s first-round playoff exit at the hands of the Kraken still stings. The Avalanche went from defending champs to spectators quicker than almost anybody expected, and nobody in the organization – as well as the fans – want to see a repeat of that. Unfortunately, the Winnipeg Jets will be Colorado’s first-round opponent in these upcoming playoffs. They haven’t just beaten the Avalanche in all three times they’ve played this season, they’ve cruised past them to the tune of a 17-4 scoring differential in those contests.

Make no mistake, the Avalanche are in trouble. Winnipeg is a nightmare matchup for them, and the Avs are entering the playoffs on what’s arguably their chilliest cold streak of the season. This recent stretch has shown cracks in the goaltending. That means it might be up to the defense in front of him – which is a tall ask because of Colorado’s high-flying style. That said, the shift is going to have to come from everybody up front, because if the Avalanche have to score five or more goals per game just to have a chance to win, it’s going to be another short postseason.