Friday Feels: Wedgewood to the Rescue?
Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images
The Avs traded for a new goalie, but is he any good? A goalie trade! Finally! The Avalanche sent Justus Annunen and a 6th round pick to Nashville for backup netminder Scott Wedgewood, and then immediately pressed him into service when Alexandar Georgiev needed a bailout against the Buffalo Sabres. What a mess.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s go player by player. Annunen clearly ran out of time to prove himself after an up an down season that saw him appear to claim the net in October and then completely collapse in November. There’s a case to be made (and we made it weekly on the podcast) that the team mishandled his growth, but ultimately Annunen did not win the job despite Georgiev desperately trying to lose it.
On the flip side, Georgiev’s inconsistent play made the starting role an ongoing question mark despite Annunen desperately trying to lose it himself. The tandem was broken, with the team riding them trying desperately to peddle along despite one wheel turning square and the other clearly missing its spokes. The entire league could tell a change had to be made.
Here’s the problem when a need for change is obvious in professional sports — the other teams drive up their prices for a replacement. A true starting netminder was already going to require a trade that might be too pricey for Colorado’s front office (please stop tweeting about John Gibson people, he’s a wildly expensive gamble), and even a good backup was getting more and more expensive with every low danger goal against.
Enter Scott Wedgewood. He might not even be a good backup, but he’s certainly a good guy and a steady veteran who can play well in spurts - which makes him more trustworthy than Annunen in the short term. Giving up a solid prospect and a pick to get him is a tough pill to swallow, but the price was only increasing so it’s better to pay it now than later.
Scott Wedgewood is an incredible locker room guy.pic.twitter.com/Hay0e7kLGI— Avalanche Forever (@citchmook) December 4, 2024
In his Avs debut, Wedgewood looked very good despite his Nashville yellow pads. He backstopped a furious comeback win over the Sabres with a clean sheet in his nearly 50 minutes of play (Fourgiev took just 12 minutes and 8 shots to hit his quota), including 7 high danger stops. That’s wonderful, but it can’t be counted on.
He got the next start and played much more like himself - 4 goals against with one high danger, two mid, and one low on 34 shots. That’s NHL backup numbers, and nothing to be upset with him about, but not the kind of game that will save the Avs team goaltending stats. He’s going to be the mid version of Annunen at worst, and pretty good once in a while.
The position isn’t solved, but it is, most likely, going to be a little more consistently mediocre — one wheel still might be square in this tandem, but the other at least has all the spokes it needs to roll.
FRIDAY FEELS
It’s a weird week for the Friday Feeler (me, I am the one who feels) because I really didn’t want to see Annunen go and I really hated that Hurricanes game, but I am generally quite optimistic about the Avalanche as a Cup contender. Let’s do Banks - little good things we can bank our hopes on - and Tanks - bad stuff tanking them - this week!
Bank It: Ross Colton is coming back!
Broken foot? 8 week recovery time period? No problem - 5 weeks later he’s already skating and on the road trip with the team. Colton could be back in the lineup ready to resume his career-best goals pace as soon as tomorrow in Detroit, solidifying a top six that has struggled at 5on5 when Nathan MacKinnon isn’t on the ice.
No Tank You: Casey Mittelstadt Trying too Hard
A big part of those struggles are coming from Mittsy, who just can’t seem to handle pucks right now. Against the Hurricanes, I counted 7 turnovers in open ice where the puck just seemed to hop his blade, jump off his stick, or whatever other euphamism you want for a ghastly turnover. It’s bizarre for a player as talented as he is, but he’s also clearly in his head about his production drying up and when he’s thinking out there he struggles. He needs to focus on playing with his feet first and let his puck still flow naturally, rather than try so darn hard to fix his play from the hands up.
Bank It: The Powerplay Is Dangerous
It’s been a tough stretch statistically for the Avs powerplay, with multiple shotless minutes and very few goals in the last couple weeks. It looks downright bad sometimes. But underneath that is a powerplay that generally enters the zone with ease and moves the puck very well - they’re just missing a trigger man in the middle of the ice to open things up. That’s where Ross Colton was doing his most damage, and I expect as soon as he returns that unit is going to go on a scoring binge.
It’s not just his goal scoring - a threat out high opens up the seam passes that Nate and Mikko love to throw across the ice to each other for one timers AND distracts the defense from both blocking Cale Makar wristers at the top of the zone and trying to clear big Val from the net front. I’m about to be very excited to watch this unit again.
No Tank You: Penalty Killing Without Josh Manson
I wrote just a couple weeks ago about Manson’s struggles this season, and I stand by what I said BUT oh my lord do I miss him on the penalty kill. It is an absolute mess right now because Calvin de Haan has gotten more minutes and everything I said about Manson’s issues with gap control and quick decisions goes double for Cal, plus when he decides to try to clear the crease he always seems to become a massive screen for the goalie. Manson could really move dudes out of the eyelines, de Haan just seems to join them there.
I’M SORRY I WAS MEAN JOSH PLEASE COME BACK!
Last week I didn’t make predictions because there were games on Friday and Saturday and I can’t write on Sundays for personal reasons (personally, I didn’t feel like it), but the week before I was wrong about all the games except the Vegas win.
This week I’ll go:
@ Detroit: W@ New Jersey: L@ Pittsburgh: Wvs Utah: W
Season Total: 12-15 ...
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