With his Presidents’ Trophy-winning team on the brink of elimination following a 5-3 loss on Sunday night, Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar stated the obvious heading into Tuesday night’s must-win Game 4 of their best-of-seven Western Conference finals with the Vegas Golden Knights in Las Vegas.
“The hill to climb is definitely a tough one, right?” Bednar said. “It just doesn’t happen very often.”
Try never.
Teams that fall behind 3-0 in the best-of-seven conference finals or league semifinals are 0-49 all-time. That’s not a hill, that’s Mt. Everest … on steroids.
Colorado will try to take the first step of winning four in a row on Tuesday, and will try to do it with Rocket Richard Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon (league-leading 53 goals) and power forward Valeri Nichushkin (28 career playoff goals) both hampered by injuries.
MacKinnon, who has seven goals and eight assists in 12 playoff games this season, crumbled to the ice after blocking a Shea Theodore shot on the outside of his right knee with 7:54 left in the second period. He tried to take a couple shifts later in the period but quickly skated back to the bench. He returned for just 4:05 in the third period but was noticeably compromised by the injury.
Nichushkin, meanwhile, didn’t play the final 22 minutes with a lower-body injury.
Bednar didn’t have a medical update for either player at his press briefing on Monday.
“Everyone’s seen the play, the shot hits him in the knee and that can be traumatizing, especially early on,” Bednar said of MacKinnon. “There’s things that the trainers can do to try and get that feeling better and loosen up and get him to a spot where he can play unencumbered.
“It’s about how fast we can get him there and get him out there. It could be tomorrow morning before we know that. It could be game-time before that. We’ll just plan for all scenarios and then go from there.”
The Avalanche gave up five consecutive goals after taking a 3-0 lead in the first period Sunday. It marked the first time in franchise history that the Golden Knights came back from a three-goal deficit to win a playoff game.
Colorado has lost all three games in the series in regulation. The Avalanche, who led the NHL with 121 points, lost just twice in regulation in their first 40 regular-season games while blazing to a 31-2-7 start. Twice the team had 10-game winning streaks during the stretch.
“We’ve had lots of stretches that we won four in a row, so we just focus on the next game and we take it home (for Game 5), and then anything can happen,” forward Martin Necas said.
“I think it kind of boils down to not letting the disappointment overcome you,” Bednar said. “It’s all about pride and character at this point.”
With a third trip in nine seasons to the Stanley Cup Final just a win away, head coach John Tortorella was asked what his message to his team heading into Game 4 would be.
“We’re going to play another hockey game tomorrow,” said Tortorella, who has led the Golden Knights to a 18-4-1 record since replacing Bruce Cassidy as head coach late in the regular season. “Today is a work day. We did our tape. They have an optional skate. … We’re playing another game, and we’re going to need to be better. That’s how we approach it.”
“I think the fourth win is always the hardest to get, whether it’s the first round, the second round or conference final,” Theodore said. “We’re going to expect their best. Obviously, for them it’s win or go home, so we have to match that intensity from the start.”
