Coach Jared Bednar receives vote of confidence after Avalanche ousted in early rounds again

DENVER (AP) — Jared Bednar’s job on the bench appears perfectly safe after the Colorado Avalanche were ousted in the early rounds yet again.

General manager Chris MacFarland gave Bednar a vote of confidence Tuesday — “100% confident Jared’s our head coach,” MacFarland exclaimed in a deconstruct-what-went-sideways news conference.

This first-round playoff exit to Dallas, though, was particularly tough to swallow for MacFarland and team president/Hall of Famer Joe Sakic. Not just because former Avalanche forward turned Stars series saver Mikko Rantanen was the one to send them packing with a hat trick in Game 7. It was more because the front office firmly believed they had assembled a team that could win another Stanley Cup title, just like they did in 2022.

“This one stings. I’m not going to lie to you,” Sakic said. “We knew we had the team to do it. We feel like this year’s team was on that (2022) level. So that’s why this one’s going to sting. It’s going to sting a little longer than other years.

“We’ll regroup. Great players here, great character. They want to win and we’re going to find a way next year to be in the situation again and try and compete for the Cup.”

One change the Avalanche made in the aftermath of the Dallas loss was letting go of assistant coach Ray Bennett, who oversaw the power play. The Avalanche were 3 of 22 with the man advantage against the Stars.

“They (Stars) did everything they needed to be dangerous and scored (in) key moments of the game,” Sakic said. “We just didn’t have it at the right time. So at the end of the day, when you look at it all, that was the difference.”

The Avalanche have been to the postseason eight straight years under Bednar, who’s the winningest coach in franchise history. During that stretch, they’ve only made it past the second round when they won it all in 2022.

“I went through it as a player as well. Sometimes things just aren’t going to go your way,” Sakic said of a series. “We just missed on some opportunities and we didn’t capitalize. But we’ll get back at this again next year.”

Sakic said he was involved in the deal that sent Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes on Jan. 24 that acquired Martin Necas and Jack Drury. Rantanen was then sent by Carolina to Dallas on March 7 at the trade deadline.

Rantanen tormented the Avalanche in the series — five goals, seven assists — and will continue to do so for years to come after agreeing to a $96 million, eight-year contract.

“What’s done is done. That happened. We move forward,” Sakic said. “We were very confident with the group we have here. Listen, we had a really good team here. … It was a lot deeper, a lot stronger than it was to start the year or Christmas time. We didn’t get it done.”

Through all the squandered third-period leads in the series, Colorado was still 6:14 away from advancing — before Rantanen tied it up.

“Everybody’s frustrated,” Sakic said. “Everybody’s disappointed, just because we felt we were this close to moving on.”

Now, some decisions. Forwards Jonathan Drouin, Joel Kiviranta, Jimmy Vesey and Brock Nelson along with defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Erik Johnson are set to be free agents.

MacFarland isn’t opposed to running it back, especially with a nucleus of Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Devon Toews, along with the return of their captain, Gabriel Landeskog.

Landeskog made it back for Game 3 after not playing in an NHL game for nearly three years. He’s been sidelined by a chronically injured right knee since helping the Avalanche to the 2022 title. Showing no signs of rust, Landeskog had one goal and three assists over five playoff games.

“Listen, nobody knew if he would be able to come back, not even himself,” Sakic said. “To come back the way he did, it was pretty inspiring.”

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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/NHL