Maybe this is playing devil’s advocate a bit. But, if the Avs were to stop “trying to their cake and eat it too”, wouldn’t it be better to give Tyson Jost the opportunity that Mikko had and let him spend a good chunk of an AHL season playing top line minutes and getting used to scoring goals by the handfuls?

Come on guys the goalie situation is not as simple as that. First: if you have a better goalie down there, you bring him up and play him. But you don’t know, so you find out and again end up bringing Francouz up.

Second: Varly’s contract is ending and aren’t we assuming the Avs will let him go after the season? Well the way he’s playing we don’t need him in the playoffs and if Francouz is worthy, then maybe we get something in trade for Varly.

Third: Just last post-season we ended up in a situation where the Avs were forced to play their number three goalie. I’m sure Bednar hoped he had given Hammond a look before that, given him some games to be better ready for what he had to face.

Francouz is playing good in the AHL and our goalies are terrible in the NHL. That alone is reason enought to bring Francouz up now but when you consider everyhting else along with it, it’s just dumb not to do it.

I’ve been calling Macks fervent stick handling 3 card monte, juggling is good too.
The thing that I don’t get is the amount of over passing on offense. You guys made the point about driving the net and another benefit of driving the net, especially early in the game, is that the D will start to collapse and open up the options to make those passes that aren’t working now. Boxers use the jab to set up other punches. Avs need to set up the extra pass for a back door tap in by making the easy direct plan early and often.

I think you guys are spot on about #29…he’s getting way to fancy and just needs to shoot more.
I heard an interesting interview with an NHL coach (think it was Boudreau) not long ago. And he was asked about having to remind players to shoot the puck. He said all coaches have to do it basically because the players get to thinking that they can always beat the other guy but forget how good the guys on the other team are.
I like the confidence in that, but the stubborn mindset of trying to do it all alone all of the time often leads to nothing.

Bednar is in a tough spot here in regards to usage and who is played.
His bottom line is to win games. And it sure looks like he thinks playing some of the young guns substantial minutes might cost wins. So unless he/ownership/management all get on the same page to play the young guys more to develop them regardless of the W/L, he’s going to be a bit conservative and go with the known abilities of some guys that he trusts more than the unknown potential of others.

why don’t we see more players take shorter term deals as unrestricted free agents to get a chance to chase a cup? A guy like Duchene could theoretically take a 1-2 year deal at the same cap hit with a contending team like Winnipeg as an example, and then get that opportunity and sign a big ticket after that