Jared Bednar, suddenly the seventh-most tenured NHL head coach, gladly filters out what he calls the external noise: the folks who criticize his job performance.
As he should.
The Avalanche entered Saturday tied for second in the Western Conference behind the mighty St. Louis Blues, the defending Stanley Cup champions who started this latest coaching carousel craze. Yeah, the Avs haven’t played great lately, but every team struggles at times in this highly competitive league and Colorado general manager Joe Sakic won’t participate in what has been a surprising coaching turnover.
The Blues underperformed early last season and fired coach Mike Yeo, and they went on to win Cup with interim coach Craig Berube.