What's the Difference? Avs/Kings Goaltending

As you may already know, the Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup. If you didn’t know that, please leave this blog immediately. There is probably a badminton game on ESPN 2 for you to watch. You’ve got to love those shuttlecocks. Anyways, the Kings won the Cup, showing the world that they are a deep, tightly knit hockey team with affective systems and the right pieces in all the right places. And it just so happens, by a stroke of luck, their goalie got hot at the right time (Tim Thomas/2011 Bruins anyone?). So what’s to stop the Avs from doing the same thing as the Kings next season? Well, apparently a lot. Over the course of the next few months, we will analyze the main differences between the Los Angeles Kings and the Colorado Avalanche, and what can turn a mediocre young squad into champions.

We Start With The Best Defensemen: Goalies

Semyon Varlamov is good. And he is only going to get better. We hope. And JS Giguere is also pretty good, especially for his age. But the Avs goalie tandem is not nearly as skilled as the duo who can now call themselves Stanley Cup Champions. Jonathan Quick is already an elite franchise goalie, with Olympic Starter/continuous AllStar written all over him. He was the number 1 reason the Kings won the cup. If any other goaltender had been in net for the Kings, then you might have been watching the Vancouver Canucks hoist the Cup last week. Quick makes key saves at all the right moments, has impeccably good positioning, and seems to manage his sort of kneel down butterfly style into perfection. Quick was cool under pressure, and the Kings new if they messed up, there was a good chance their goalie could bail them out.

And who better to back Quick up then an even younger Steve Bernier? Oops. We meant Jonathan Bernier. We just got those two mixed up, since Steve did so much to help the Kings win game 6. Bernier is 23, and already a noticeably skilled goaltender. If Quick was to fall to injury, or decide to randomly take an inexcusable amount of time off from hockey in order to spend time with his family and religion, the Kings had a backup that could handle the workload. Bernier is 131-87-25 in his career, all with the Kings, with a solid .916 save percentage. Thank you Wikipedia. If Quick was unavailable, you still would have had to like the Kings chances. The goaltending situation in LA is similar to that of the Canucks’, who still wield Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider. Wouldn’t that be nice Avs fans?

Semyon Varlamov and JS Giguere are good goaltenders. Varlamov, 24 years of age, is an up and coming young star, that will probably be the starter when Russia fails at another Olympics in 2014. But right now for the Avs, he just does not have what it takes to turn his team into winners. A playoff team this year? Probably. Getting past the second round this year? Probably not. Now, no one knows what kind of training Varlamov is doing this offseason. I’m sure part time goalie coach Kirk Mclean will help teach him how to lose important game 7’s him out once or twice in the offseason. ONLY once or twice. But Varly won’t be able to carry the Avs like Quick did for the Kings. Yet.

Jean-Sebastian Giguere? He’s not Jonathan Bernier. He was shockingly good this year when Varlamov wasn’t, and helped turn the Avs into winners. And by winners we mean not 14^th or 15^th in the Western Conference. But Giguere is getting older and his usefulness will soon run its course.

So to sum up the whole blog, the Avs need a full time goalie coach a solid, reliable starter, and a young skillful backup. These are the facts that separate the Avs from the Kings on the last line of defense.

Glass Half Full ending: With Sami Aittokallio, Calvin Pickard, Cedric Desjardins, Brandon Mawell, and Kent Patterson, winner of the Most Generic Name award, the Avs goalie future is looking bright. If Varlamov mans the helm for the next 10 years, the Avs have solid backup options and tempting trade bait. If Varlamov parts ways with the Avalanche sooner than expected, look for the management and coaching staff to groom any of these goalies into fulltime NHL starters.