Underneath the Avalanche of pucks
By: Nick Fin
In recent years the Colorado Avalanche have had teams that are always in contention when it comes to winning the Stanley Cup. However, they always fall short. Is it the lack of skilled goalies for Colorado or the potential disaster that looms every playoff season? Does Colorado have quality over quantity in net? In this first part of a two articles I want to look over the goaltending depth and the one who «got away» this past off season. Last night's game against the Maple Leafs when Darcy Kuemper got pulled early did not look good. However we were able to see Pavel Francouz step in and calm the storm.
We've seen Pavel Francouz play the past few season as the Avs' back up netminder. He has gotten to play 38 games in his young NHL career putting up a record of 22-10-4 with a 2.42 Goals Against Average and a 0.923 save percentage. When he is healthy he can easily be a guy the Avs rely on to support their starting goalie.
The next goaltender is one that is fairly new to the Colorado Avalanche organization, Justus Annunen. Justus Annunen was drafted in the 3rd round in 2018 by the Avs. This season is his first season starting for the Colorado Eagles, his record this year in the AHL is 8-6-4 with a 2.77 Goals Against Average and a 0.901 Save percentage.
We got to see Justus play this season against Ottawa for his first appearance in the NHL. Justus had come in to relieve Jonas Johansson and saved 17 of the 19 shots that he faced in a 6-5 overtime loss. He would go on to start the next game against the Philadelphia Flyers and win 7-5. Justus Annunen became the youngest goalie for the Colorado Avalanche to win a game at 21 years old. I have high hopes for this youngster to be the next starter in Colorado if he can remain healthy.
The last goalie who Avalanche Fans have seen come up a few times last season was Hunter Miska. Hunter Miska came into our goaltending injury relief carousel. He appeared in 5 NHL games last season with a record of 1-1-2, 4.16 Goals Against Average and a 0.842 save percentage. This year Hunter Miska is currently playing for the Colorado Eagles in a back up position. His AHL record this season is 1-2 with a 5.59 Goals Against Average (you read that right) and a 0.797 save percentage. Hopefully the Colorado Avalanche stay healthy enough to not rely on Hunter Miska deep in the season or the playoffs.
When it comes to the Avalanche there is a lot to dive into. The next article will feature a head to head comparison between Grubauer and Kuemper. Should be electrifying.
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