If you talk to Avs fans about their lousy season, you'll often hear how awful the defense was. It was obviously a sore spot with the team placing 26th overall in terms of GA.
The strange this is, none of the metrics aside from goals against suggest that Colorado was bad in their own end. The Avalanche actually allowed the 9th fewest shots against per game (29). And it's not like they were giving up break-aways or point blank chances: according to sites that track quality of shots against, Colorado was also in the top third of the league by these metrics: Desjardins has both Avs goalies with expected SV% of .915 (Budaj) and .916 (Raycroft). Nik Backstrom was the only regular starter with a higher expected SV% according to this process.
In addition, Hockey Numbers has COL SQA (shot quality against) at 0.97, good for 7th in the NHL.
The primary culprit, therefore, was the Avs crap-tastic goaltending. Colorado fans can thank the duo of Budaj and Raycroft for the Duchene pick this past entry draft.
It's funny how much blame the COL defense absorbs however. I'm certainly not calling Avs fans thick or unobservant, it's just the nature of perception: on almost every shot on goal, one could probably identify a mistake or missed opportunity to deny the chance. When pucks go in, the "mistakes" are noticed and tallied. If not, then not. For example: Jarome Iginla charges into the zone, one-on-one with Scott Hannan. Jarome makes a strong move left and fires the puck through Hannan's legs at the goal. Outcome one: Budaj makes the save, Hannan is lauded for not allowing Iginla a better chance. Outcome two: the puck sales through Budaj (again!) and Hannan is pilloried for not denying the shot AND providing an unwitting screen. The same play could be perceived differently based solely on the outcome. There's a reason bad goaltenders are coach killers (and good goaltenders make for genius coaches).
Something similar has been happening in Flames circles the last couple of years, although Calgary has been decidedly middling in terms of defensive performance in contrast to Colorado. That said, it'll be instructive to see what happens this year should the projected defensive improvement under Brent Sutter occur but without a concurrent rise in Kipper's SV%.
