{"id":559972,"date":"2026-04-26T12:09:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T12:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/559972\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T12:09:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T12:09:39","slug":"avalanche-would-be-nuts-to-rest-scott-wedgewood-vs-kings-in-game-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/559972\/","title":{"rendered":"Avalanche would be nuts to rest Scott Wedgewood vs. Kings in Game 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

He\u2019s taken Patrick Roy<\/a> to the Wedgewoodshed. He\u2019s chucked Philipp Grubauer, Jose Theodore, Alexandar Georgiev and Darcy Kuemper, one by one, into the chipper.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Scott Wedgewood\u2019s net right now.<\/a> It\u2019s Scott Wedgewood\u2019s world<\/a>. If you\u2019re Avalanche coach Jared Bednar, why the devil would you ever change a horse that\u2019s got the NHL eating its dust?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a guy keeps winning,\u201d Eddie Olczyk, the TNT hockey analyst and former NHL forward, told me before the Avs punked the Kings in Game 3 of their best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoffs series, \u201c(then) there\u2019s no reason, in my opinion, to make any changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Especially when the guy between the pipes is rewriting Colorado\u2019s history books. Of the 12 guys who\u2019ve logged at least 200 postseason minutes in front of the net for the burgundy and blue, no one over their initial four playoff appearances with the Avs has posted a lower goals allowed average (1.17 GAA) or a higher save percentage (95.2%) s than Wedgewood, a career journeyman.<\/p>\n

Heading into Sunday\u2019s Game 4 in Los Angeles, The Wedgie Train is 3-0 this postseason with a 1.28 GAA. Perspective: Saint Patrick Roy went 2-1 with a 2.33 GAA and a shutout in his first three Avs postseason starts. Grubauer was 2-1 with a 2.24 GAA. Alexandar Georgiev? 2-1 with a 3.03 GAA. Jose Theodore? 3-0, 2.92 GAA. Darcy Kuemper? A 3-0 record, 1.62 GAA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun. You always want an opportunity. That\u2019s kind of been my whole career, right?\u201d Wedgewood told The Post\u2019s Corey Masisak late Thursday night after Colorado\u2019s 4-2 victory. \u201cJust kind of hoping for an opportunity and (to) be used and find a home. And (I) had one in Dallas, then I go here, and it\u2019s just been smooth sailing since I got here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only swell in the seas up ahead? Wedgie\u2019s workload. After Thursday evening, the No. 41 in your program and No. 1 in your heart had made five starts since April 13. That was the most he\u2019d logged over an 11-day stretch since last Oct. 21-31 \u2014 a rare early-season dip that saw Wedgewood drop three of five decisions while the Avs were off to a 7-1-4 start.<\/p>\n

Last Sunday was the 33-year-old\u2019s first career postseason start. Every step forward is another step deeper into uncharted waters. Only right now, it feels as if the only force on Earth that can stop WedgieMania is Bednar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy looks like he\u2019s putting his name on the circuit,\u201d Kings boss D.J. Smith said of Wedgewood after Game 3, \u201cas a big-time goalie.\u201d<\/p>\n

One who\u2019s looking bigger by the day. Of the 17 NHL net-minders who\u2019ve played at least 20 minutes in the first round, only Buffalo\u2019s Alex Lyon (96.9%) and Carolina\u2019s Frederik Andersen (96.4%)<\/a> had a better shot-stopping rate than Wedgewood\u2019s 94.7%. According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the Avs\u2019 goalie went into Friday morning ranked fourth among NHL stoppers with 55-plus minutes of playoff action in \u201chigh-danger\u201d goals allowed average (0.64) and fifth in percentage of \u201chigh-danger\u201d shots saved (90.5%).<\/p>\n

Wedgewood hasn\u2019t seen a lot of stinkers \u00a0\u2014 save for the starts, he joked to me once, that involved him wearing those cursed Quebec Nordiques throwbacks.<\/a> Yet the stats also say a fresher Wedgie has been a better Wedgie, by and large: With a day\u2019s rest during the regular season, the Avs\u2019 1A goalie option put up a 5-3-3 record, a 2.22 GAA and a 90.7% save clip. With two days\u2019 rest, he was stellar \u2014 9-0-1 with a 1.34 GAA and a 94.5% stop rate. With three or more days off between appearances, Wedgewood went 17-2-2 with a 2.24 GAA and a 91.8% save percentage.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the matter of the blonder half of Avs\u2019 Lumber Yard, Mackenzie Blackwood,<\/a> who was the organization\u2019s presumed No. 1 net-minder before injuries and inconsistencies dogged his year.<\/p>\n

Blackwood is younger (29) than Wedgewood and has more career playoff starts (seven to Wedgie\u2019s three) under his belt. The longer the Avs remain in the postseason, the more likely it becomes that you\u2019ll need your 1b goalie at some point.<\/p>\n

With a 3-0 lead in this series, would it be smart for Bednar\u2019s long-term plans to give Blackwood a cameo on Sunday, just to shake off the rust? Or salve his ego?<\/p>\n

\u201cNah,\u201d Olczyk replied. \u201cYour main focus right now for the organization, without question, is putting the best lineup and the best combination and pushing the right buttons that give your team a chance to win and have success. If that means pulling a guy or not playing (a guy), and that goes for skaters, too \u2014 when your name or number get called, you\u2019ve got to be ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s hard. It tests a lot of things under the umbrella. And when you get asked to step in, you go in, you play.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Game 3, Wedgewood saw 26 shots. He\u2019s faced 76 attempts this postseason and turned away 72 of them. That\u2019s the most he\u2019s faced over a three-game stretch in at least a month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are hypotheticals,\u201d Olczyk continued. \u201c(If you play) a couple of overtimes, you win, and (if Wedgewood faces) 78 shots, and you turn around and play the next day \u2026 \u00a0in this series though, you have a few extra days off (before Game 4).\u201d<\/p>\n

When I floated the idea of giving Blackwood some game time to Eddie, he sunk it. Actually, he sort of laughed. Hockey dudes are a superstitious lot. Wedgewood is hot. And you never mess with a heater in April, May or June until the fire dies out.<\/p>\n

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver\u2019s teams.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He\u2019s taken Patrick Roy to the Wedgewoodshed. He\u2019s chucked Philipp Grubauer, Jose Theodore, Alexandar Georgiev and Darcy Kuemper,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[463,464],"tags":[1738,193,1650,144,368,5,1117,1180,793,1123,1262,4,60,2905,6764,2565,1653,43,350,14,104,718],"class_list":{"0":"post-559972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-playoffs","8":"category-stanley-cup-playoffs","9":"tag-alexandar-georgiev","10":"tag-avalanche","11":"tag-avalanche-takes","12":"tag-colorado-avalanche","13":"tag-darcy-kuemper","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-jared-bednar","16":"tag-latest-headlines","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-mackenzie-blackwood","19":"tag-more-avalanche-news","20":"tag-nhl","21":"tag-nhl-playoffs","22":"tag-patrick-roy","23":"tag-philipp-grubauer","24":"tag-scott-wedgewood","25":"tag-sean-keeler","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-sports-columnists","28":"tag-stanley-cup","29":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","30":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116470937273552756","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}