Goaltending has been a story to follow since the opening game of the series last week saw 15 combined goals between the two clubs. We\u2019re just three games into it, and we\u2019ve now seen all four netminders on the ice. <\/p>\n
Colorado Avalanche\u2019s Scott Wedgewood got the nod for the seventh consecutive game in the postseason, but he was yanked after giving up three goals on 12 shots. Mackenzie Blackwood entered the crease having not played in nearly a month. His last game was on April 14, when he started the 81st regular season game. <\/p>\n
Now Jared Bednar has a decision to make, but he said that\u2019s been par for the course all throughout the playoffs. Bednar has continued to stress that he doesn\u2019t have a starter and a backup this season. He has a tandem and has trusted one or the other \u2014 or both \u2014 at different points this season. <\/p>\n
Still, it\u2019ll be interesting to see which way he goes on Monday. On one hand, getting Wedgewood out of there so quickly allows him to reset and get some rest before starting again in Game 4. But on the other hand, it also gives Blackwood a chance to shake off some rust before potentially starting a, to put it lightly, highly important game.<\/p>\n
10 Takeaways<\/p>\n
1. As you\u2019d expect, Bednar was asked about goaltending quite a bit after the game. He first assessed Wedgewood\u2019s play.<\/p>\n
\u201cWedgie was playing hard. Maybe he looked a little too aggressive on a couple of those,\u201d Bednar said, before breaking down some of the goals he surrendered. \u201cThe penalty kill, ends up without a stick, getting aggressive, coming across. Then they find the back of the net. The next one, gets a piece of [Devon Toews], I think it\u2019s a pass, and it ends up in the empty net. He\u2019s out too far.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Why the goalie change?<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom what I\u2019ve seen out of Blackwood here recently, a rested guy and a guy that we trust, I felt like it was a good opportunity for us to get him in and see if it sparked our group and if he could maybe close our door the rest of the way,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I did it. Just felt like they had all the momentum and all the speed early in that game, and we needed to do something. We needed to do something to get our guys fired up and going. I was hoping that would be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. It didn\u2019t work as Bednar had hoped and intended. The Avalanche have been the better team at 5-on-5 nearly every night since October. But not on this one. They were outchanced 19-13, of which it was a 6-5 advantage in high-danger opportunities. They couldn\u2019t muster any goals at 5-on-5.<\/p>\n
4. Surprisingly, the Avs didn\u2019t give up any goals at 5-on-5 either. The Wild\u2019s goals were scored at 4-on-4, 4-on-3, 5-on-4, 6-on-5, and 5-on-6. <\/p>\n
5. How quickly fortunes could change. The best scoring change in the first part of the opening period belonged to Parker Kelly. He\u2019s the only skater without a point in this series and still got compliments from Bednar at morning skate for playing his role. <\/p>\n
Jesper Wallstedt robbed Kelly. Shortly after that, Kelly was in the box along with Ryan Hartman and Minnesota scored twice, both while playing 4-on-4 and on a 4-on-3 power play. In the second period, the Wild made it 3-0 with, you guessed it, Kelly in the box for holding.<\/p>\n
And when the Wild scored their fourth goal shortly after the Avs\u2019 first, Kelly and the fourth line were on the ice.<\/p>\n
6. This loss should be a wake-up call to Brock Nelson and Valeri Nichushkin. They\u2019re logging heavy defensive minutes as a duo, but their offense has to get going. Each has one goal through seven postseason games, and they were both scored on an empty net to close out a game.<\/p>\n
7. Nelson was asked about this after the game.<\/p>\n
8. \u201cWe have to find ways to be more possessive with the puck, sustain a little bit more in the O-zone, and generate a few more chances,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cI feel like we\u2019re confident in the ability that we have. Some nights might be a little bit different depending on the matchup or how the games running with special teams. So defensively, yeah, I think we\u2019ve been pretty solid, but offensively, there\u2019s more.\u201d<\/p>\n
I wondered if or when Bednar would try to change things up in the middle six. He had already switched up the top line by elevating Gabe Landeskog in place of Artturi Lehkonen. But at one point in the third period he tested out a line of Nazem Kadri, Nic Roy, and Nelson. It was\u2026 Not great.<\/p>\n
The trio got pinned in their own zone for more than two minutes. Minnesota made a couple of changes while cycling the puck. They didn\u2019t score \u2014 nobody did in the third period. But that shift was this game in a nutshell. Colorado was a step slower and a step behind. <\/p>\n
9. I\u2019d be curious to see how Bednar balances the shutdown abilities of that pairing with their lack of offense. This is a head coach who has never shied away from an opportunity to shake up lines when needed. Will he look at making a change? I\u2019m going to ask him about this the next chance I get. <\/p>\n
10. Bednar openly admitted the Wild had more compete. This is not something he often does. Blackwood had the quote of the night about that same discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know what they have to do. I\u2019ve got the most confidence that they\u2019re going to come out hard and play the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Goaltending has been a story to follow since the opening game of the series last week saw 15…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1223,6522,385,84076,99],"class_list":["post-634770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-mackenzie-blackwood","tag-nhl","tag-scott-wedgewood","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}