Jared Bednar identifies reasons behind Avalanche’s WCF offensive struggles

The NHL’s most lethal offense, owned by the Colorado Avalanche, looked like a shell of its former self during the Western Conference Final against the Vegas Golden Knights. Colorado rolled along all year, with fans worried that the bubble would burst at the worst possible time, and they couldn’t have been more right.

While it was shocking to see the Avalanche get swept, the manner in which it happened shouldn’t have surprised as many people. With John Tortorella taking over the head coaching responsibilities in Vegas with his ability to get his teams to play great defense, and a goaltender in Carter Hart who was the next great Canadian goaltender until legal issues left him out of the game for a year, the Golden Knights’ sudden emergence as the stingiest team in the postseason wasn’t that far-fetched, according to Troy Renck via X, formerly Twitter.

“Their checking game and Carter Hart had an incredible series, and their team made it hard to get quality looks,” Jared Bednar told reporters after the Game 4 loss.

Hart allowed just seven goals over the four games, recording save percentages of .947, .968, .914, and .952. With numbers like that from your starting goaltender, it’s going to be very hard for any team to beat the Golden Knights. 

Vegas will now get a lengthy lay-off to rest and recover for the Stanley Cup Final, while the Avalanche head into another offseason with more questions than answers about a team that they thought was good enough to win it all.