Would a Conference Final sweep put Jared Bednar on the hot seat?

Coming into the Western Conference Final, the Colorado Avalanche appeared to be a juggernaut. They had only lost one game over their first two playoff series’, making the postseason look like merely a continuation of their Presidents’ Trophy-winning regular season. Now, after three straight losses to the Vegas Golden Knights, Colorado finds themselves on the brink of getting swept by a team that finished 26 points behind them in the standings.

There are a number of factors that have contributed to Colorado falling into an 0-3 hole against Vegas. Injuries of varying degrees to their two top stars, defenseman Cale Makar and center Nathan MacKinnon, have certainly hampered them. Goaltender Scott Wedgewood has also been far from his best, allowing nine goals on 73 shots for an .877 save percentage in the series. The person most likely to face immediate consequences for a four-game sweep, however, would be head coach Jared Bednar, who is on the verge of presiding over four consecutive disappointing playoff exits after winning the Stanley Cup in 2022.

On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton were joined by Guerilla Sports’ Jesse Montano to discuss how much blame would land on Bednar should the Avalanche get swept.

Carter Hutton: If this is an early exit, how much of this falls on Bednar at this point? When you look back to last year and Dallas, and you’ve had this run of generational talent with Cup expectations, does it really start to fall on his shoulders?

Jesse Montano: As a few of us went out to have some drinks last night after, this was kind of the topic of discussion. Once they got out of the second round, for the most part the general consensus that Jared Bednar is safe. They got through the second round, now let’s see what happens. I had kind of made the joke to someone, I had said “I don’t know, unless they get swept in the Western Conference Final, I think he’s fine.” And now suddenly here we are at 3-0.

Here’s where I’m at with it. Even if they get swept, I don’t think Jared Bednar loses his job this summer, but I think he starts next season with a pretty hot seat, like a “You’d better not start 4-6” type of hot seat. It’s just because we have seen a couple instances here since they won the Cup where it feels like they collapsed. It feels like they have things going, and the floor just kind of comes out from under them. The reason I don’t think he necessarily loses his job right here is because of what we were talking about with the injuries. The Avs have had really good injury luck all year, and look, it’s hockey, it happens, the injury bug has seemed to catch up with you at a pretty inconvenient time. The competitive spirit, how soft they were on pucks, that type of stuff has nothing to do with injuries, so there’s clearly blame that goes outside the injuries, but I think he probably gets a little bit more benefit of the doubt because you’re without a Cale Makar who can shoot, and you’re likely going to be without Nathan MacKinnon in Game 4.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Monday’s episode here…