Avalanche identity shaken to its core by late-game meltdown in embarrassing Game 3 loss

Here’s the short part of the story: Colorado played poorly again in Game 3 while Vegas fed off an energized home crowd and outplayed and embarrassed the Avalanche for much the game.

Two goals in 45 seconds late in the third period erased a 2-1 Colorado lead and flipped the series from heading to 3-0 in Colorado’s favor while the Avs were playing like garbage to a 2-1 series where Vegas has dominated play for the last five regulation periods and looks like they’re the team in control of the series.

Nobody was more privy to this truth than Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar, whose postgame press conferences are typically full of him breaking down the game and not showing much emotion in any direction.

That was not the case tonight.

A visibly angry Bednar wasted no time making his feelings known as he used the first question to lambast the competitiveness of his entire team.

“For five straight periods now, [Vegas] have been far more competitive than we have been and to dissect the game any further than that is a waste of time,” Bednar said.

This was the same Bednar who offered only measured responses when asked about more controversial topics, such as the Ryan Reaves suspension or the call that led to Colorado’s game-winning goal on the power play in Game 2. Bednar has always maintained a level head when talking with the media. Until tonight, that is.

“We’re kidding ourselves if we think that’s the competitiveness we need to beat the team that tied us for first in the league.”

What to do next was obvious to Bednar.

“The adjustment for us now is to make sure we outwork our opponent, and that we execute. If we do that, we give ourselves a good chance to win the hockey game. But [Vegas is] a competitive group, and now we have to crank that up because that’s not close.”

Bednar’s ire quickly went towards his top players as the primary culprits for Colorado’s lackadaisical efforts over the last five periods.

“It starts there,” Bednar said. “I haven’t seen the stats but go ahead and check the numbers on our top guys tonight compared to their top guys. It’s not close.”

Bednar added the hardest working player on the roster right now is Philipp Grubauer, who was brilliant again tonight and made 40 saves on 43 shots.

The third period also featured Bednar going to the vaunted “Blendar” as he mixed and matched the forward lines throughout in search of something might help to spark his team. At times it appeared to be working but overall the results were more of the same: Vegas ran over an Avalanche team that was outworked and overmatched all night.

That the Avs even had a lead in the third period was the result of Grubauer’s brilliance and not much else. The goal from Mikko Rantanen extended his playoff point streak to 17, now one of the longest streaks in modern NHL history, but that was about it for good feelings on the evening.

If there was any proof that outworking your opponent and doing the right things will eventually lead to things breaking your way, the two goals Vegas scored to win the game tonight were perfect examples.

The first was a bit of bad luck for Jonathan Marchessault as he inexplicably got loose behind Colorado’s defense but had the puck roll off his stick before he could attempt a shot and then he stayed with the play by throwing the puck at the net anyway and it found the back of Grubauer’s gear and went in, tying the game.

Just a shift later, Max Pacioretty, who had eight shots on goal in this game, finally got through when he worked his way to the front of Colorado’s net off a won faceoff and tipped the puck straight down between Grubauer’s legs.

There’s nothing you can realistically ask Grubauer to do differently in that situation and given his overall excellence in the game, you’d be dumb to say anything to him anyway because he was the only reason the Avs didn’t get absolutely blown out tonight.

Having rarely seen (read: basically never) Bednar in this kind of form tonight, it’s not hard to understand his frustration when you remember where he’s been.

This was a player who basically maxed out as an ECHL player and even had a stint playing pro roller hockey in California in the 90s. His existence in professional hockey has been perilous at times and he’s had to scrape and claw for every inch he’s ever gotten, first as a player and then as coach.

Bednar was never the most talented guy on any of his pro teams and had to find a way to survive. Even when he got the big break of his life and was hired by the Avalanche, his first year as an NHL head coach saw his team lose 60 of 82 games and accumulate a meager 48 points, an astonishingly low number.

The Avalanche showed faith in Bednar’s ability to lead this franchise back to respectability and now he finds himself at the helm of a potential juggernaut, an analytics darling trying to prove that consecutive Game 7 losses in the second round were meaningful stepping stones, not the high-water mark of a talented group who couldn’t live up to their potential.

Bednar has believed this team has the goods and has coached them up with that fervent belief every single day with a laser focus on the Stanley Cup. This is the proving grounds. Right here. This series. This playoff run. This is the time and this is the team.

The question heading into a suddenly enormous Game 4 is simple: Can his players prove Jared Bednar right?