“Colorado” found a dry goalkeeper – Newspaper Kommersant No. 48 (7493) of 03/22/2023

The current owner of the Stanley Cup, the Colorado Avalanche, which even in the middle of winter looked almost like a crisis club, scored a chic form at the end of the NHL regular season and, having defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-0 at home, won the sixth victory in a row. And in the list of the main heroes of the Denver team was the Russian goalkeeper Alexander Georgiev, who has already played the fifth “dry” match of the season, who is experiencing an amazing career upgrade this season.

After a convincing win against Chicago, it was strange to recall the very recent past of the Denver club. In mid-January, Colorado lost to the same opponent – 2: 3, and at that moment there were serious doubts about whether they could at least come close to repeating their achievement in 2022. Wins and losses in the championship are equally divided, despite the fact that half of the tournament is already behind, four dozen matches, the game is so-so. In this situation, getting into the cup stage in itself seemed like the ultimate dream for Colorado: he clung to the play-off zone with great difficulty.

But then everything changed radically, then there was a fantastic breakthrough. Since then, Denver have played 29 more matches and defeated opponents in 21, including the last six. And in this segment of the league, there was no longer a club more effective, despite the fact that the entire season, including its chic part at the junction of winter and spring, Colorado was pursued by injuries to leading players. Because of them, he still manages without Captain Gabriel Landeskog. Because of them, top scorer Nathan McKinnon and another striker of the leading link, Valery Nichushkin, were out of action for a long time. Because of them, the main defenders missed matches, including the defender of the strongest – Cale Makar. But Denver hockey was still becoming more and more like the one that brought the team last year’s Stanley Cup, allowing them to deal with the mighty Tampa Bay Lightning in the final series.

Now, of course, the question of a ticket to the playoffs for Colorado has already been removed from the agenda. The only relevant question is from what position the club will enter it.

And the dynamics indicate that it will be quite favorable. In their Central Division, Colorado is in second place, but the Dallas Stars are only one point ahead of them in an extra game. The leaders of the Western Conference are also very close: the Vegas Golden Knights and the Los Angeles Kings have a margin of four points, but they have played more games than the Denver club, which has a completely unexpected hero.

Until now, Colorado has been associated primarily with those hockey players who made the greatest contribution to his last year’s triumph: McKinnon, Makar, Nichushkin, Miko Rantanen, Devon Teyvz. But in this list of the main characters of the team in March, it is already clearly necessary to add another player – a player with a paradoxical biography.

You need to start with the fact that goalkeeper Alexander Georgiev was born in Bulgaria, far from hockey, and moved to Russia in early childhood.

He was quite noticeable at the youth level, played for the national team. But Georgiev was not among the most sought-after young domestic hockey players in the middle of the last decade, and the NHL clubs did not pay attention to the goalkeeper in the 2017 draft. He had to go to the New York Rangers training camp himself to prove that he was worthy of the contract.

The contract has been signed. But for a long time it seemed that the truly prominent roles of Alexander Georgiev did not shine. He’s been good in some games. The problem is that in the goalkeeping team with him there were always not just cool, but exceptionally talented goalkeepers. First Swedish veteran Henrik Lundqvist, and when he retired, Georgiev’s young compatriot Igor Shesterkin flourished. It was he who, following the results of the last season, got the prize of the best goalkeeper of the league.

Alexander Georgiev, the eternal understudy, was helped to take a step forward by chance.

Winners of the Stanley Cup, fitting into the tight salary cap, often part with important players. Colorado last summer was no exception, and among the hockey players who left it was goaltender Darcy Kemper, who moved to the Washington Capitals. The hole needed to be closed by someone, and there were no free goalkeepers with a big name on the market. So Colorado took Georgiev and, as it turned out, hit the bull’s-eye with him.

He quickly turned into the undisputed frontman of the club’s goalkeeper team and played in 51 matches out of 69. And the numbers tell the story of the reliability of Alexander Georgiev perfectly. In terms of the percentage of reflected shots (92%), he is in fourth place in the championship, in terms of the number of wins – 32 – he shares second place with Igor Shesterkin, second only to Linus Ulmark from the Boston Bruins. At the same time, Shesterkin’s other significant indicators are worse, like those of Darcy Kemper. And the match against “Chicago” with 27 reflected shots was for Alexander Georgiev the fifth “dry” in the season, and there is no one ahead of him in this sense. Level – only Ulmark with another Russian Ilya Sorokin from the New York Islanders.

Alexey Dospekhov