Scott Wedgewood’s rough start has become an easy target, but the Colorado Avalanche can’t pin everything on their backup goalie.
Tuesday night in Columbus was the low point. Wedgewood gave up four goals on nine shots, a brutal line that will naturally draw heat.
And yes, his season numbers are ugly on the surface: a 4.02 GAA and an .867 SV% in five games. For a veteran who was so steady last season, that’s a sharp drop.
But the full picture is messier than the box score suggests.
Wedgewood has handled the chances he should be stopping. His .962 SV% on low-danger chances sits just below his expected mark, which tells you he’s doing his part when the looks are clean.
The trouble starts when the shots get tougher. His save percentage falls to .811 on medium-danger chances and sinks all the way to .571 on high-danger chances. That points to a bigger problem than one goalie having a bad stretch.
The Avalanche are allowing too many dangerous looks, and they’re also letting too many shots get through in the first place. Wedgewood is fifth in the league with 52.94% of unblocked shot attempts hitting the net. Colorado is blocking 20.31% of shot attempts, but enough pucks are still reaching the crease to create more medium- and high-danger chances than the Avs can afford.
There’s also the matter of how the games are being assigned. Wedgewood has been getting the second game of back-to-backs this season, and Colorado has not exactly been sharp in those spots. That was obvious again in Columbus.
Moving forward, it may make more sense to flip that setup and use Wedgewood in the first game of back-to-backs. That could leave MacKenzie Blackwood to take the second leg, with the benefit of better defense in front of him.
With the Avalanche back home Thursday night against the Nashville Predators, Wedgewood could be in line to get right back in the net. That might help the team, and maybe his confidence too.
Either way, the message is pretty clear: this isn’t on one guy. Everyone has to be better.
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