There are times when the numbers tell the story for a goaltender, and even in a small sample, the data cannot be disputed.
Alexandar Georgiev did not play well at the start of this season. It was certainly a small sample. The club was shorthanded in front of him, and had a couple of particularly poor defensive efforts. Still, the numbers were the numbers.
That has changed. Georgiev looks like a different goaltender in early November than he did last month, and the numbers back that up as well.
While the Avalanche lineup is about to look much closer to full capacity by the end of this week, the bounce-back from Georgiev may be just as important as the club’s push for a spot among the Stanley Cup contenders truly begins.
“It means a lot,” Avs star Mikko Rantanen said Monday night after Georgiev made 29 saves in a 3-2 overtime victory against the Nashville Predators. “He’s been really solid, really sound in the net and making big saves. He was making some in the first. It could have been 3-0, easily. It was only 1-0 because of (Georgiev). It was great.”
During the early part of this season, it felt like the Avs needed to be near perfect in front of Georgiev because he was clearly scuffling. He had the worst stats — traditional, advanced or other — of any NHL starting goalie in October.
Georgiev has stopped 83 of 90 shots in the past three contests, which is a .922 save percentage. Considering the competition and expected goals against, it is clearly the three best games of his season to date. The Avs have defeated two teams that made the playoffs last year (Carolina and Nashville) and lost 1-0 in Winnipeg, which is off to an NHL-record 14-1 start.
Now, with the caveat of it only being a three-game sample, the roles have been reversed a bit. The team has not played well at times in front of Georgiev, particularly in the first period, in each of those three games. He has propped the team up, not the other way around.
“I didn’t have any doubt that he could get there. I just wanted to get there as soon as possible,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “When you’re stringing together solid games and giving our team a chance to win, that’s what we want to see. The longer you do that, the more trust you get.”
The Avs have allowed 9.85 expected goals over the past three games, according to Money Puck, and Georgiev has yielded seven. Again, the numbers are the numbers. And Georgiev has clearly looked more like the best version of himself as well. He’s catching shots with his glove instead of them glancing off it, he’s fighting through traffic and making saves and everything just looks … normal again.
It didn’t look like that a couple of weeks ago, either in games or in practice. He only played one time during an eight-game stretch, and it does appear the time to reset has helped.
“(Georgiev) cares. I know he cares, and I know he works hard,” Bednar said. “But like, the mental side of it … it just takes some players longer to reset after things don’t go their way than others. For (Georgiev), I think for a while there, the harder he tried, the worse it got.”
Alexandar Georgiev (40) of the Colorado Avalanche confirms to the officiating crew that he made a save against the Nashville Predators during the overtime period of the Avs’ 3-2 win at Ball Arena in Denver on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Justus Annunen also struggled in a smaller sample at the start of the year but has rebounded as well. That allowed the Avs to place Kaapo Kahkonen on waivers, and the Winnipeg Jets re-claimed him. The days of there being three goalies in Denver are gone, which was needed as the forward group starts to get healthier.
Maybe Kahkonen’s arrival helped spur the turnaround. The break from playing games likely played a role as well. The Avs certainly needed Georgiev (and Annunen) to play better than they did to start the season.
Now, the club is 8-8 and should be adding more high-end players soon. Toss in goaltending that looks more like what was expected, and the near future looks a lot brighter than how things played out in October.
“It means a lot,” Georgiev said of playing three straight games. “It had been a bit too many games without me playing, but I was trying to make the most of it in practice and be ready for the next one. I know I’m a good goalie, so I’m trying to play the best I can and give us a chance to win.
“The goals against (is going) down, so hopefully it keeps trending that way. Just trying to take the positivity here.”
Footnote: Jonathan Drouin and Miles Wood both skated during the Avs’ optional Tuesday practice in normal jerseys. They have been wearing red “no contact” jerseys while skating with the team during their recovery periods. Bednar said he did not know if they will be ready to play Wednesday night against Los Angeles or not.