Determination, grit, perseverance - all words used to describe the 2022-23 Colorado Avalanche team, which looks different than last year's Stanley Cup-winning team.
DENVER – Playoff time is finally here, and the Colorado Avalanche made a huge comeback in the second half of the season to get to this point. But it wasn’t easy, and the team is not taking that for granted.
“Kind of never give up. We go through really tough times with injuries and the standings, everybody kind of, little bit thought of us out, maybe in January even,” Mikko Rantanen, who played all 82 games and had a career, milestone season, said. “And there’s some hesitation, even in our minds, but we found a way. Determination is one good way to describe us.”
This isn’t an unprecedented concept, either. The St. Louis Blues were dead last in the league midway through the 2018-19 season to come back and not only make the playoffs but win the Stanley Cup.
Despite the injuries and downfalls the team suffered all season, it wouldn’t be where it is without the outstanding goaltending of Alexandar Georgiev. In his first starting spot in the NHL, the off-season pickup from the New York Rangers has proven to be an elite netminder winning 40 games in his 62 starts.
Georgiev is dialed in, ready for postseason
Coach Jared Bednar has spoken about Georgiev’s improvement throughout the season and how he kept the team in several games when play got a little sloppy in the defensive zone.
Bednar said Georgiev has developed good habits that have worked for him to keep him focused and not let the pressure of the game get to him, which he’s expecting to continue into the playoffs.
“(I) try to find a peaceful moment to kind of sit in quiet, relax the mind a bit,” Georgiev said about his pregame routine. “The rest, I think, yeah more warming up the muscles and getting that hand-eye coordination going.”
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Georgiev’s discipline to focus on the game at hand and not, as he said, get ahead of himself, is crucial in the playoffs for all the players. That is a difficult task to complete requiring an immense amount of drive and desire.
“We as the players, we want to push too. We don’t want to get satisfied, because that’s the worst thing you could do. Get satisfied and kind of just say it’s going to be easy for us, but won’t be,” Rantanen said. “And we know that so that, again, tells the mentality of the team and the strength we have.”
Avalanche focus on the game ahead
Bednar said the players had been in meetings all morning Monday and that they are all putting in the work to be ready for Game 1 against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night. The work the team has put in throughout the second half of the season has shown, and that momentum needs to continue into the playoffs in order to make a deep run.
This is not the same team as last year, but this squad has shown grit, as Bednar has repeatedly said, to come out on the other side.
“This team has had to grind and fight for every win and lots of them didn’t come easy and we found different ways to do that. And that’s what you have to do come playoff time,” Bednar said.
“This is why you play. I mean all the 82 games we just played are just preparation to get to this point,” he said.
As far as making any changes, individually or as a team, there’s no need. They have been finding ways to win with only two regulation losses in their last 15 games. Georgiev said, “It’s just about doing the same preparation for the games as we did in regular season.” And staying healthy, of course.