“I’m still on call, it’s my job,” he said calmly on the post-match press conference. Pavel Francouz. In the basic part, he evenly divided the portions of matches with his colleague Philippe Grubauer, but in the playoffs, the German goalkeeper was already the number one Avalanche.
But now maybe everything is different. In the opening game of the second round of the playoffs between Colorado and Dallas, Grubauer was injured, moreover, after a rather banal intervention. At the beginning of the second period (at 1: 3), with a right concrete, he reached for the inaccurate blow of Denis Guryanov, but he injured his left leg when he was crouched. He lay motionless on the ice for a long time, and only with the assistance of a paramedic did he finally rise, dragging his left leg behind him.
Injuries to Philipp Grubauer and the arrival of Pavel the Frenchman:
“He pulled something out and couldn’t go on. It’s bad news for us, “said team coach Jared Bednar after the match. The loss is noticeable, because Grubauer did very well in the playoffs. In the first round against Arizona (4: 1 in matches), he scored only four goals in the four matches he played.
The start of the opening match of the series with Dallas did not go well for him, but the three goals collected from the first period were covered by an injury from the 24th minute. Substitute Frenchman quickly got ready and hurried to face the runaway Stars. His teammates pleased him with an early reduction, but soon Radulov responded with a Landeskog shot with his second shot of the evening.
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The Czech goalkeeper hunted the puck from the net in the third period, so he collected twice from 20 shots. “I had some good interventions, but unfortunately we did not manage to finish the match,” the French regretted after defeat 3: 5. “We are losing in the series 0: 1, but we are definitely not giving up anything.”
Coach Bednar admitted that Grubauer’s injury would probably not be a quick affair. “Only time will tell how long he will be out. I have no idea at the moment, but I don’t expect him to show up at training the next day or anything like that. It means we have a chore for the French. “
The 30-year-old Czech goalkeeper was in a similar situation in February, when Grubauer was also injured, and the Frenchman excelled in the Avalanche goal at the time. They hope for a similar course in Colorado even now, although the pressure of the elimination struggles cannot be compared with the basic part. Against Dallas, however, the Frenchman has already shone once in this year’s playoffs, in the group he deployed the Stars shooter in a 4: 0 win. He once caught in a series with Arizona, but it ended in a 2: 4 defeat.
The team from Denver is currently not only missing Grubauer, in the last match Avalanche also had to deal with the absence of striker Matt Calvert (“unfit to play”) or defender Erik Johnson, who resigned due to injury during the match.
But the biggest scarecrow is the number one goalkeeper so far. Can the Frenchman take Grubauer’s place again? The second game of the Colorado series with Dallas is scheduled for Tuesday night.
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