The desperation shows on the Avs in their quest to make the NHL playoffs. They get jittery in big moments. Colorado needs a chill pill. His name is Calvin Pickard.
Has the Avalanche finally found its big-game goalie?
In a game as close to a must-win as the regular season allows, Colorado needed every one of Pickard’s 24 saves in the third period to hang on and beat Florida 3-2 on Thursday.
“Pick was phenomenal,” Colorado coach Patrick Roy said.
And what does Roy like best about Pickard, inserted in the starting lineup in place of Semyon Varlamov at a tense juncture of the season, when failure is not an option?
“The thing that I like about him, it’s a swagger,” Roy said.
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Swagger defined Roy as a goalie. While the coach would not absolutely commit to Pickard as the starter, can there be any doubt?
Sorry, Varly. If the Avs want to make the playoffs, Pickard is their best choice between the pipes, without question. And the crowd in the Pepsi Center certainly gave their vote, roaring loud approval for Pickard when the victory was secured.
“It’s amazing, hearing that cheer for you,” he said. “This place buzzes. And the fans are great.”
In an arena where every home date scores on the accounting ledger for the Kroenke family, somebody needs to ensure the lights are on and fans are spending money in the Pepsi Center as late into spring as possible. It’s certainly not going to be the Nuggets, doomed to miss the NBA playoffs for the third consecutive season. So the pressure is on the Avs.
The flurry of moves general manager Joe Sakic made at the trade deadline indicated that patience building a contender might be a virtue, but it doesn’t pay the utility bills.
“From here on out, it’s playoff hockey,” defenseman Tyson Barrie said. The Avs are chasing Nashville and Minnesota for a wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
The trade that raised my eyebrows and my hopes was the acquisition of fleet forward Mikkel Boedker, who scored his first goal in a Colorado sweater to give the Avs a 2-1 lead against Florida during the opening period. At a salary of $3.75 million and free agency on the horizon, however, Boedker is the definition of a rental player.
Sakic surrendered two recent draft picks to Arizona for Boedker, and even if both Connor Bleackley and Kyle Wood had yet to sign with Colorado, it indicated that Avs management feels the pressure to win now, because the move clashed with organization’s philosophy that the development of young talent is paramount to future success.
It’s hard to ask Colorado season-ticket holders to renew their seats without giving paying customers a solid, tangible reason to believe the Avs are more than an excuse to party in LoDo with 50,000 friends at a baseball park filled with fake snow and plastic mountains.
Enter Pickard. Nothing can spark a hockey club like a hot goaltender, eh? And there’s little reason to think that Varlamov was going to be it, after getting yanked during recent losses at Minnesota and Buffalo.
Yes, let’s give Varlamov props for winning 41 times and recording a 92.7 save percentage during the 2013-14 NHL campaign, when he was a very deserving finalist for the Vezina Trophy. But during his other four seasons, Varlamov has been the definition of mediocre, with a record of 87-82-17. At age 27, Varly is no longer a kid.
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It’s time to ask two hard questions: 1) Can Varlamov ever be expected to become the big-game goalie required for a Stanley Cup run? 2) Should the Avs give serious consideration to unloading his $6 million salary during an offseason trade?
There’s an edgy excitement to the way Varlamov patrols the crease, but what Colorado needs now is the calm exuded by Pickard, who seems to trust his fundamentals rather than panic when faced with an odd-man rush.
The Avs have been searching for their next great goaltender since Roy retired in 2003. Varly gave a glimmer of hope he would be the man. Now, however, Varlamov appears to be just another guy between the pipes.
This is not to suggest that Pickard is the next Saint Patrick.
But Pickard might be the goalie to save the Avs and answer Colorado’s prayer for a return of the spine-tingling feeling that only playoff hockey can bring.
