Matt Larkin and Frank Seravalli talked about the latest concerns facing the Colorado Avalanche on the latest episode of Daily Faceoff Live.
Frank Seravalli: Let’s talk about the Avs, do they actually get in (to the playoffs). My question for you after they lose to the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night as the Blackhawks this week have wreaked havoc on the Western Conference wildcard race. They handed the Calgary Flames a tough loss on Sunday night as well. What is your level of concern for the Colorado Avalanche on a 1-10 scale at this point in the season, knowing how many guys they’ve been missing due to inury?
Matt Larkin: I think it’s elevated now to a seven. Because the Avs are getting a little bit healthier now, you have Nathan MacKinnon back as that anchor. But you’re still missing Gabriel Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin, Bowen Byram, Josh Manson, these are key cogs of the Stanley Cup winning team from last year, especially in that top-six.
If you look at the depth chart right now, what’s scaring me is that you have everybody in that lineup playing higher than they should be. Whether it’s Alex Newhook and J.T. Compher in the top-six, their third-line right now looks like the fourth-line and their fourth-line right now looks like an AHL line. So the depth is really depleted and I’m really concerned right now about Alexandar Georgiev.
Last seven games, .882 SV%, he’s three starts away from setting a career-high in starts. The workload is unprecedented for him and maybe he’s starting to break down. So I am a little bit nervous right now.
Frank Seravalli: I’m going to give it a five and the only reason that number is that high for me is because I’ve been listening to their coach Jared Bednar who said last week, “I hope we’re not going to rely on the success of last season in order to try and get us into the playoffs this year.” He seems to be sounding a bit of an alarm but for me, I look at this group, the players that they’re going to get back, it’s going to solve some of the depth issues that you were just talking about.
I mean, just getting Josh Manson and Bowen Byram on their back-end back into the lineup. That’s going to free up Cale Makar to go back to being a 90-point defenceman. As opposed to just the point-per-game guy that he’s been having played 30 minutes a night this season, he’s going to need to be more efficient. I think it solves some of their depth issues, and moving forward this is a team that can just as easily roll off 12 straight wins without blinking and all of a sudden put some teams in the standings in their rear-view mirror.
You can watch the rest of the episode here…
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