Avalanche Room: Georgiev Reenacts Absurd Save, Girard’s ‘Best’ Impressing Coach

Georgiev on his save on Hoglander:

“I felt like I got a glove on it. The puck was coming to the crease, and they made a quick backdoor pass, and I tried to scramble, cover the low part of the net. I think I saw somehow from behind they were shooting, and luckily got a glove on that.”

Georgiev on the intensity of the game:

“It felt like a big game. Great job by the guys playing smart, finding a way to win. (I) like the score. Not high-scoring game, and I’m glad we got it done like that.”

Bednar on Avalanche forward Ryan Johansen‘s performance:

“I thought he played hard again. There’s just a little bit more competitive spirit in his game here recently. The team has been digging in. He’s a veteran player. It looks different for everybody, you know, that competitive spirit, but he’s been working hard and doing what he can and he gets rewarded for some of that work here tonight. Nice to see him get rewarded, in two different ways, really. Nice play by Zach on the second one.”

Bednar on if he’s spoken to Johansen about that competitive spirit:

“Well, we’ve been talking to our whole team about that. I haven’t spoken to him individually on that, like recently, but we’re reiterating that every day and what we need to know. It’s what the game requires in order to win. At the end of the day, you can’t cheat your work ethic, you can’t take shortcuts. He’s got to be hard and competitive or it’s just not going to be good enough.”

Bednar on the defensive play of the Avalanche:

“I thought it was good, starting with our goalie. We have the same chance they have in the first period with Nate driving the net low, we miss on it, they score on it. You can’t fault him on that, it’s a partial breakaway, it is what it is. He was competitive tonight, and I thought our guys were really competitive in front of him. There were a lot of those net-front scrambles that was hard to find, and our guys collapsed back to the net-front and they played hard. (Kiviranta) keeps the one out, and then they get the next chance, they slide it over and (Lehkonen) gets out and gets a block. The penalty kill at the end of the game – I like the adjustment that Pratt made with those guys. They protected the house really well.”

Bednar on MacKinnon‘s streak extending and the crowd wanting it:

“Well, I was wanting him to get it. He knows he’s going to be on the ice at the end of the game, right? So if we can hold on to a lead, then he’s going to get an opportunity with the net empty.”

Bednar on the play of Sam Girard:

“It’s solid. I would say, because it’s getting to be a lot of games now, I would say for this long a stretch, and being as impactful as he is, it probably is the best I’ve seen him play.”

Bednar on the Avalanche trusting Zach Parise right away:

“You got to look at a guy’s history, and what he’s been doing in the league for years and what he’s been good at. Part of it is that he’s a really responsible defender. He understands the game. On the Johansen goal, we talked in intermission using the strong side low-to-high in the offensive zone that their wingers are really jumping out there to try and cut that, so now you got to implement that in your game. What’s the next option? Well, he gets that puck, and lots of guys would have just went low-to-high and it probably would have got cut and sent out of the zone, but he takes a split-second to turn, get it on his forehand, sees it’s taken, and uses Johansen in the D-2 spot, and it gets us a goal.

He pays attention to all the details on anything that can help in the game. That’s why he’s still playing.”