Dater: "Hockey Is A Cruel '(Bleeping)' Mistress"

Avs implosion was swift, sudden

That saying in the headline is exactly what a very well-known NHL coach told me one day, years and years ago, minus the softening of the actual word in parentheses. He said it to just me in his office, after taking a long drag off a cigarette after a really tough loss.

Lifers in the game of hockey are all well-acquainted with the saying. Coaches can never relax, in any sport, but I would say hockey coaches are the most paranoid of them all, about the next slump, the next hot goalie, the next injury, the next shitstorm about to hit that nobody thought could be coming.

Hockey coaches have always had the shortest life spans of any in the four major sports. Which is why Jared Bednar has beaten the odds already, having coached the Colorado Avalanche for the last 10 seasons. Only one other coach, Jon Cooper in Tampa Bay, has a longer current tenure with the same club.

I guarantee you Bednar has thought that above saying in the last however many hours since the Avs lost Game 3 last night, 5-3, one where the Avs had a 3-0 lead and seemingly a new lease on life in the series.

How could this happen to a team that breezed through the regular season and won eight of the first nine playoff games? How could a team that had two 100-point scorers, a team that scored the most goals and allowed the fewest, suddenly be down 3-nil to a Vegas team that fired its head coach, Bruce Cassidy, late in the regular season and seemed like a team playing past an expiration date, an older team with spotty goaltending?

Because hockey is a cruel bleeping mistress, that’s why.

But it’s not “bad luck” as to why the Avs are in this spot right now. It’s a lot of things, such as: