MacFarland on the Regular Season and Defending the Stanley Cup

Avalanche General Manager Chris MacFarland addressed the media on Sunday afternoon to reflect on Colorado's regular season where the team finished atop the Central Division standings with a 51-24-7 record and 109 points and share insight as the team heads into the postseason with a First Round matchup beginning on Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken.

On the general feeling going into the postseason:
Pretty good. It was a long, grinding year, and the guys did a did a fantastic job, our players and coaches. This is the fun time of year. It's a great time of year for the NHL in general, but it should be some great series and I think this one will definitely be one of them. Two good hockey teams.
On the injury status of the team:
Well, we hope that we'll get Cale [Makar] and Josh Manson back. Obviously, we've got to get today and tomorrow, through that. I think we believe [Andrew Cogliano] and [Denis Malgin] will also be ready to go, and Darren Helm continues to grind. So, whether he'll be ready for Games 1 and 2 at home remains to be determined, but we're hopeful that we'll see him as well at some point.
On Landeskog's knee injury and the decision to announce that he won't play in playoffs:
Gabe, being the quality person that he is, didn't want it to be something that coach Bednar had to be asked about every single day, and his teammates. As good of a hockey player as he is, he's the emotional leader of our hockey team, and a great person. So I think it was driven by him. He obviously knows he has our full support with what he's going through. We were going to be respectful and handle it however he wanted, but I think he was the key driver of the timing of that.
On predicting Landeskog's injury affecting the approach at the Trade Deadline:
We certainly wanted to give him every chance. It wasn't like he was out in December and played until January. He missed the whole year, right? And our goal and his goal was to have him back, and he deserved that. He deserved that, that opportunity, whether it was going to be in mid-March or late March or whatever. And he did everything he absolutely, positively could. Obviously, he's a massive part. So if he could do it, that's what we wanted more than anything in the world.
Number one, we want to get Gabe right. I mean, that's the most important thing, is his health. He's a massive piece for us, obviously on the ice, and players like him don't grow on trees. He's a massive piece for our organization in so many ways. So number one is we want to help him to get the situation right so that he can resume playing. Anything else in terms of like offseason stuff, we'll deal with it as we move on, hopefully, you know the playoffs here and then obviously leading into the draft and free agency and that will certainly have to be part of our equation, is his situation. But goal number one is to assist him in any way possible in terms of getting solutions to help him get everything right.
On the process of scouting and target Alexandar Georgiev in the offseason:
Well, I think that was certainly a team effort. It's never done in a vacuum where it's one scout. When you watched him play over the years, you can see the athletic ability and you can see upside, but I think when you factor in the video that we watched and our analytics information, we felt that that was a pretty good swing for us to take to find the next guy. But then you got to do it on the ice, right? There's a big difference between being part of a tandem and then sort of grabbing the wheel and playing 62 games this year. Getting 40 wins is obviously a massive feather in his cap. He's performed incredibly well, and now it's his chance to drive it up during a playoff time, which is another experience spoke in his wheel too. That'll be important, but he's been fantastic. But it was a team effort by all of our hockey ops staff and our goalie department as well.
On this team finding ways to win compared to last year's team:
Last year's team was obviously a very good team. It was very deep, deep in all facets. Up front, back end and goaltending. We took some cap casualties in the offseason and had to deal with a ridiculous amount of injuries. We weren't the only team in the league that had to fight through that. We were losing some key guys starting with obviously Gabe, and those guys are really hard to replace. Full marks to our coaches and especially our players for grinding through a short offseason and coming back. ... They get full marks. I think this group has been resilient. Obviously, we have a lot of the same players, but you look at some of the years [Nathan MacKinnon] and [Mikko Rantanen] and [Georgiev] and Cale and [Devon Toews], these guys, they had a big burden amongst others. Our second half was really strong. But it was more of a workmanlike approach. Consistency in the second half. Grinding. Finding different ways to win. Very proud of them, and obviously the fun season begins."
On the trade to receive Denis Malgin:
"With any player in the league we have scouting reports to his time before he came over the pond. Watching him, his skill stands out. He's not the biggest guy, but he's got good hands, he's got good puck IQ. We just felt that could translate into a useful player to us as a guy who would have some elevator ability that if Coach Bednar wanted to use him in the bottom six or as a righty shot as a piece on the PP2, and give us a little bit of a skill infusion while we were battling through some injuries. Dryden Hunt was a guy we also liked and took on waivers. Obviously more of a sandpaper type , hard nosed forward, but I just think at that time we needed a little bit more skill, pop and a little bit more quickness. That was something we just felt as a staff made sense at the time. To Denis' credit, he's taken advantage of it. He's found a way to score some timely goals for us. That's his value: If [Coach Bednar] wants to use him in a second line role, great. If we're healthy and he can slide into a third line role, he's competitive enough to slot in there as well. He's been a jack of all trades for us and has fit in pretty well with our group."
On his first full year as General Manager:
"You're always learning. For me, the seamlessness of doing it here was amazing. To get to continue working with [President of Hockey Operations Joe Sakic] and with our coaches that I'm obviously very familiar with and this team that I've grown to love and respect over the years since coming to Colorado. You're always learning. For me making the calls and taking the calls and building relationships and trust with the other general managers, many of whom I've known and grown up with to some degree, and some that I've had to get to know. That part has been continuing to learn on the job part. The familiarity of doing it here, there's certainly no place I'd rather be. It's been good."
On leaning on Sakic for insight and their current dynamic:
"It's huge. You've got Joe Sakic, right? There are experiences that Joe has gone through as a player and as an icon in the game that very few people have (experienced). Having worked with him closely, day-to-day, the last number of years on the pro (scouting) side … we talked every day. It's seamless that way. That part hasn't really changed. He's a guy that we know we can lean on in any number of ways; our players, (Bednar) and myself. We're very, very fortunate to have him around in the role that he is (in) here."

On if its possible to forecast players having career-high seasons:
"Mikko and Nathan, obviously, they're stars in this league and have a track record of success. So, you go into the year knowing they're just going to be themselves, right? They're going to produce. Obviously, with Georgiev … we were very bullish on him and believed that he could give us very good goaltending. But he had to go out and do it.
Any goaltender would probably tell you that, when you're part of the tandem, and you want to be the horse in net, the carry-the-mail guy, I think until you do it, there is always that question. Maybe the athlete is confident. But when you've got to play 50 or 60 games, that's grinding, right?
With some of our guys that have been here, we kind of know what to expect from them. What's great about Nate, Mikko, Cale, Gabe and (Toews); they have very high expectations for our group. But they also set a very high bar for themselves. We're very fortunate to have them and I think that drives a lot of things in our room.
On the coaching staff and extending Jared Bednar to a three-year extension:
Jared has a great way about him. He's a commanding presence but I think he has the full respect of our guys. I'd like to add in Ray Bennett, Nolan Pratt, Jusse (Parkilla), Shawn Allard and Brett (Heimlich) into that mix as well. They're a team, too, right? They work a lot of hours and care about our group immensely and we're very fortunate to be able to work with them. They're very passionate about the game. They're very passionate about coaching and teaching.
"They found a way, in trying times this year, to get our group not only in a playoff spot, but to get first overall (in Central Division). Back-to-back 50-win seasons, that's not easy to do in the best of circumstances. It's the best league in the world with the best players in the world. They found a way to keep pushing the right buttons and keep pushing these guys. I think he's the perfect coach for our team. We're very lucky to have him"
On the tandem between Georgiev and Francouz:
We were confident that with Alexandar and in [Francouz] as well. I know [Francouz] has been banged up here, but I think he's got a lot of cachet in our bank. Not only with Joe and myself but with our coaching staff. He's been here, you know, for whatever years it's been now, and whenever he's been called upon, whether it's a big start on a back-to-back or if our starter goes down and [Francouz] has to go in like he did in the playoffs last year. He has the full confidence of our group, management, coaches, our fans, I believe. So we're very fortunate in that, that we were confident that we would get very good goaltending this year. Obviously, you know the year Georgiev has had has been incredible. But we had confidence that goaltending would be a strong point for us. And to Georgiev's credit, it's become a real strength of our team.
On Cogliano's impact off the ice in terms of leadership advice and presence with the team:
He walks the walk, right? He leads by example. Obviously, Nathan and Mikko and Cale and Gabe and Devon and all those guys are, you know, they're star players but I think Cogs is that glue guy that every team needs two or three of them. He comes every single day and he brings energy, he brings juice into the room, he leads by example, he does things right on and off the ice and you know, this is a guy who was drafted as a first-round pick, who was a top player in his draft class, who has carved out a career as a worker bee, as an energy guy, as a tenacious, defensive forward because he loves hockey. You spend three minutes with him and he loves the game and every day that he gets to come to the rink and do it. He oozes joy and you can tell it means something to him and I think that rubs off on the people around him.
On if it is harder to get to the summit or harder to stay at the summit?
I think it's hard to make the playoffs. I think it's such a challenging league and to get in to get one of those tickets gives you the chance to do that. And I think our group has done a fantastic job. I think it's six years now in a row they've made the playoffs to give us a chance and obviously in those first few years, we were building and learning and I think there's challenges to both. I look at what Tampa has done, has been incredible the way they built their team and Julien (Brisebois) and his staff and coach Jon Cooper and the players and it's hard. It's a grueling time of year for these guys and what they play through and play with. So to say one is harder than the other. I don't think I can answer that. I think they're both really, really challenging to do and obviously, last year was last year and hopefully, you know, now we're starting the grueling weeks. This week is going to be another test. One step at a time, but I think they're both really hard to do.
On identifying good college free agents:
It's an area we obviously always pay attention to, and if there was a player that our guys were banging on the door on when we do our assessments in the year and if we feel it makes sense and we can get in the mix, we've always wanted to be in the mix. But I think we've emptied some draft picks and prospects over the last few years, so if we could add to the cupboard in that way, we wanted to do it. And we were able to add Sam Malinski, Jason Polin and Ryan Sandelin. We were excited to add those guys to our group here down the stretch. And look forward to seeing what they can do for the Eagles. The advantage I guess is they're a little bit older. They're 22, 23 years old. As opposed to the kids coming out of the draft. So you're hopefully looking to get maybe a little bit more of a return quicker in terms of games played, and if we can find the next Logan O'Connor type, that would be massive for our group in a lot of different ways. Yes, there's been a little bit more of an emphasis on it to try and supplement our cupboards.
On his talking hockey with MacKinnon:
Nate and I talk a lot. Obviously he's a very important player for us. The thing about Nate that I think is really great is he loves hockey. You can talk to Nate about the other teams in the league, prospects, the World Junior, draft, he's in tune with it. He may not like me saying that, but he's a hockey nerd in a lot of different ways. He loves the game. So we talk about a lot of things, and he's obviously committed to our group. He signed a long-term extension to be with the Avs for a long time, so our conversations, we talk hockey a lot.