Alexandar Georgiev is more than just a bonafide NHL starter

Mar 21, 2023 - 2:18 PM

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Alexandar Georgiev came into this season without real experience as a starter in this league, a familiar narrative among acquired goalies by the Colorado Avalanche. Before his time in Colorado, Georgie hadn't logged 35 starts in five years with the Rangers. He is three victories away from securing his 35th win.

Georgie’s best characteristic is that he seems to improve as the regular season progresses. Last night Alexandar logged his fifth shutout tying him for most in the NHL, and his 32 wins rank second among all goalies. He sports the third-highest SV% among goalies with at least 40 starts—a positive sign for Colorado's repeat aspirations.

In this 20th edition of the Mile High Hockey Lab, Adrian Hernandez (host) chats with Jackie Kay, Ezra Parter & Evan Liu about all things Colorado Avalanche. The conversation began with assessing the Avalanche win streak, and Adrian asked which win stood out to our panel the most. The consensus seemed that Colorado's win over the Toronto Maple Leafs was most impressive, especially defensively. Jacob Weindling saw the matchup against the Leafs as an opportunity to strut their stuff defensively. That's precisely what they did, keeping Auston Matthews off the scoresheet in a shootout victory.

We also discussed Gabe Landeskog being spotted in a red jersey during the morning skate and other injury-related news. We are all so ready for Landeskog to return. That way, this topic can leave the table.

We then moved on to some of Colorado's potential playoff matchups and sent out our poll of the week. The panel discussed the preferred opponent for the first round, with teams like the Minnesota Wild, Winnipeg Jets & Seattle Kraken in the mix. Jackie Kay talked about it being pretty interesting to see a matchup with the Kraken in the first round, but a showdown with the Wild is somewhat predetermined. Adrian mentioned thinking another revenge tour might be on the table with the Wild, Dallas Stars & Vegas Golden Knights being playoff teams again.

The topic of Denis Malgin on the second line rather than Alex Newhook was brought to the table, and we discussed if Newhook wasn't meeting expectations. Newhook hasn't even played 150 professional hockey games yet, and with his moderate contribution, the Avalanche should be able to bring him back on a reasonable basis. Ezra made an excellent observation, pointing out that Cale Makar's immediate impact may have given fans unreasonable expectations for young players. Even Nathan MacKinnon took four years to become the 90+ point scorer he is today.

Regarding Denis Malgin, what more can be said about a guy that just put up a three-point night against the Chicago Blackhawks? For Malgin, it's not just that he's scoring. It's how he's scoring. He has all of the skills one needs to flourish on a team like the Avalanche, and that has begun to show as he now has seven points in his last ten games.

We ended the show how we usually do with some bold predictions! Head over to YouTube or your preferred listening platform to hear how we called our shot. Don't forget to listen to this week's episode for even more Avalanche talk! Like, subscribe, and share! All episodes are broadcast live on our YouTube channel, so head over there and subscribe.