Four more years. For what?
By giving coach Jared Bednar a new deal Wednesday in the wake of the franchise’s most embarrassing playoff exit since moving to Colorado, Joe Sakic revealed how much comfort is valued over results.
Everyone loves Bednar. The media appreciates his disarming personality and availability. The players believe, as captain Gabe Landeskog said, that he is a “great coach and a great human.” And Sakic trusts him.
The problem? He is becoming the Avalanche’s version of Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox. Starting in 1991, Cox guided the Braves to 14 division titles in 15 years. And he won a single World Series with teams speckled with Hall of Famers.
Bednar’s lone title looks lonelier than a left-out sock.
Since 2022, when the NHL playoffs featured an explosion of scoring that fit the Avs’ strengths perfectly, he hasn’t been back to the Stanley Cup Final.
It doesn’t mean he isn’t a heck of a coach. It just doesn’t match the championship-or-else mentality ingrained by former general manager Pierre Lacroix.
Marc Crawford, or “Crow” as he answered to, raised the organization’s first banner in 1996. He was gone in two years. Same goes for Bob Hartley, who won a ring in the 2000-2001 season and was coaching the Atlanta Thrashers less than two seasons later.
Was this ruthless? Perhaps. But it was not pointless. The goal was singular.
That no longer seems the case. Under Lacroix, the Avs were the equivalent of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes with Tony the Tiger roaring, imploring, “They’re gr-r-reat!” Under Sakic the past four seasons, the Avs are Timmy the Tiger, sheepishly saying, “They’re goo-ood.”
At a press conference to celebrate Bednar’s new deal, I played devil’s advocate. I know Bednar’s resume, how he is the Avs’ most successful coach and boasts nine straight playoff berths.
But I asked, “Since winning the Stanley Cup, the team has been one of the favorites and not made it back. Why will it be different, why is he the right man to get this team across the finish line again?”
Sakic, gracious and professional as always, provided a revealing answer.
“Fair question, I guess. But I will say we haven’t reached it for different reasons. I would also say that you don’t always look at the coaching staff. They aren’t the ones on the ice. They aren’t the ones that score the big goals or get that big save,” Sakic explained. “In certain situations, we haven’t been able to get it done, but as a group, the coaching staff and the players, they know what is expected. And their goal is to win the cup together, and hopefully we have another great regular season to put ourselves in a good spot and try to do it again. It’s not always one person. When we don’t get the job done, it’s a team thing.”
The first part makes sense. Each postseason tells its own story, and in the case of Valeri Nichushkin, many mysteries. But the more he talked, the more Sakic appeared to be letting Bednar off the hook.
He seems to be accepting of sour puck luck, player disappearances and injuries as reasons, even if they tread close to excuses. Sakic seems to think really good is good enough. And he definitely believes the lack of extension would have become a distraction.
The choice, then, was easy. Add years. Case closed.
“It’s everything… he’s the one who gave me the opportunity in the first place and stuck with me through some hard times,” Bednar said. “That’s my driving force. Trying to reward him, our owners, our players.”
There is no question that another downtown parade provides motivation. But the platitudes offered by Sakic for Bednar and Bednar for Sakic ignore the Avs’ 20-18 playoff record since winning the cup.
It is like Sakic has this idea that a solid Avs team that continues to sell out games is enough. That the President’s Cup made last season a success.
I guess I just expect more. The Avs have been Colorado’s Yankees since they arrived. They have won three Cups, and, perhaps we are spoiled, but that is how they are judged: that the core of Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Gabe Landeskog will get another one.
“We are one of the favorites (since 2022), for sure, and that’s where we want to be. Is it Stanley Cup or bust? I guess you could say that internally. But it’s also about having a great year. And last year we had a great year,” Sakic said. “And hopefully we do that again this year, where we have a good seed and put ourselves in position to make a run in the playoffs.”
Forgive me. I thought the postseason was everything. A team this talented is playing 84 exhibitions. The referendum of Bednar and his contract starts in mid-April. The first game of the playoffs is Opening Night.
That is when the schedule starts. The hope is they are healthy. We know they will be hungry. And, in a dot that connects back to Bednar, they must get lucky.
The NHL playoff format is stupid. On this, we can all agree. It leads to bullies playing each other way too early. And if the seeds don’t fall a certain way, fans fear the Avs will get knocked out yet again.
That is why I followed up with Sakic. His thumbnail knows more about hockey than I ever will. But in extending Bednar, I wondered if he completely forgot how those series ended against Dallas and Las Vegas.
Did he not detect a pattern of how the neutral zone trap left the Avs as so many mice caught in peanut butter on a plastic pedal?
“You don’t want to go back to the last couple of years, but two years ago really it was speciality teams because in 5-on-5 hockey we were really good. Then last year, we had two great rounds, then we had a bad week of hockey. I don’t think it’s systems,” Sakic said. “There are always adjustments to be made, but yeah, at the end of the day it’s the guys on the ice who have to find a way to get it done.”
Maybe Wednesday’s power play will provide a cheat code for seven months from now. Maybe Mackenzie Blackwood will emerge as the elite goalie that Bednar has never had.
But the truth is that the Avs’ core keeps getting older, and Sakic responded by giving Bednar four more years. Whether it was the right move does not depend on the regular season.
It hinges on Bednar winning another championship during the term of his contract, or Wednesday’s decision will be considered disappointing.
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