Colorado Avalanche fire assistant coach Ray Bennett after early playoff exit
Photo credit: Colorado Hockey Now
The Avalanche are making a change to their coaching staff, but Jared Bednar will remain in his head coaching role.
Head coach Jared Bednar is staying on, backed fully by general manager Chris MacFarland and team president Joe Sakic. However, the team parted ways with assistant coach Ray Bennett on Tuesday.
Avalanche fire assistant coach Ray Bennett.
The news was shared during Colorado's season-ending press conference with Chris MacFarland and Joe Sakic.
Bennett, who joined Bednar's coaching staff in 2017, oversaw the power play. Colorado's performance in that area ranked 14th out of the 16 playoff teams.
"When you look at how we lost, we just feel maybe a different voice should help. Our power plays have been top-10 over the last few years, but we feel the way things ended, maybe a different voice going into next year could help that.» -Sakic
The Avalanche went 3-for-22 on the power play during their seven-game series against the Dallas Stars, with all three goals scored by Nathan MacKinnon. In a tightly contested series, every chance proved crucial.
«But ultimately, execution, it comes from the players. Your top players. We have some of the top players in the world on our team. They're the ones out there that need to execute. So it just ran dry at the wrong time. It's tough to make a change. You don't like to do that, but we feel moving forward, we're hoping that a change of voice might help our power play going into next year.»
We'll see if any further coaching changes will be made over the offseason. Stay tuned.
| POLL | ||
MAI 17 | 11 ANSWERS Colorado Avalanche fire assistant coach Ray Bennett after early playoff exit Do you think Avs management will make another coaching change this offseason? | ||
| yes | 3 | 27.3 % |
| no | 8 | 72.7 % |
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