Tony Granato is the number one problem with the Colorado Avalanche right now, as I type. This is not intended to be a, “Fire Coach Granato!” post. There is to be no lynch mob forming at 1000 Chopper Circle. And while there is still the nagging sensation in the back of my mind that the Avalanche organization made a big mistake by going with a young coach over the many seasoned candidates available last year, I do think that Granato deserves at least two full seasons without executives breathing down his neck whispering about demotion or firing.
However, this Avs squad is playing like they just met in the parking lot of Pepsi Center and decided to form a team, travel the country, and play lake-rink hockey on NHL ice. There is no continuity in the defensive end, and our soft defensive play in the neutral zone practically invites teams to set up shop for minutes at a time. Our clearing strategy, for all the world, looks to be, “Backhand puck out of corner to opposing defender holding point. Wait for puck to return to corner. Repeat.” And our goaltending is, to put it kindly, atrocious. (Peter Budaj leads the league in Goalie Losses despite ceding ten games to Andrew Raycroft.)
Offensive injuries have certainly made scoring with consistency very difficult. Individual players, and even entire lines, will have standout games that leave me wondering why the Avalanche aren’t simply outscoring opponents as we have the last two seasons. Then the next night that same line, those same standout players, will be bottled up and seemingly moving at half-speed. Passing in the offensive zone has been just abysmal. So much so, that I wish I could use stronger words to describe it. The ONLY bright point in our season, and the only reason we’re still in playoff contention (sort of) has been our neutral zone offensive play. This is in part because we play such a soft, reactive defensive zone, and in part because we actually boast some very impressive speed and puck-handing skill within our offensive youth core. But a team cannot depend on transition play to win games unless it also has a stout defense and strong goaltending. The Minnesota Wild is a good example of this style of play. The Colorado Avalanche is not.
All of these problems; difficulty with continuity, unorganized play, bad passing… they all come back to the coaching staff. Granato was hired because of his repoire with our young talent, and because he supposedly possessed an above-average ability to mold young players. Well, I’m not seeing it so far. The young players that are doing well this year under Granato are the same ones that were doing well last year under Quenneville. What’s worse, our veteran players look confused and out of place in this new defensive scheme. If you’re failing at teaching young players to pass effectively and forecheck in the neutral zone, and you’re failing at teaching veteran players a new defensive system, then why are you coaching an NHL hockey team? ‘Nuff said.
