INSTITUTIONAL KNOWLEDGE
November
30, 2025
Saturday was a remarkable day in the annals
of Colorado hockey, with the torrid Avalanche routing the Montreal Canadiens 7-2 in the afternoon and the University
of Denver Pioneers staging a comeback before falling 6-5 in overtime to the Minnesota Gophers in the evening USA Hockey Hall
of Fame Game -- both at Ball Arena.
The doubleheader helped bolster the argument that Denver is one of the pre-eminent Hockeytowns in the U.S., or that
Colorado is the State of Hockey.
(For the record, Detroit has a legal claim on Hockeytown and Minnesota bills itself as the State of Hockey.)
Also, with both Avalanche coach Jared Bednar and the University of Denver's David Carle working in the same building on the same day, it was remindful that Denver has two hockey coaches
at the top of their craft. (My profiles of each can be accessed through the links at the end of this piece.)
Bednar took over for the bailing-out Patrick Roy in 2016 and by now is all the way
up to No. 2 on the NHL's coaching tenure list, behind only Jon Cooper of Tampa Bay. Bednar's name is etched on the Stanley
Cup after he and the Avalanche won it in 2022. Through 25 games this season, the Avalanche is 18-1-6.
After veteran center Brock Nelson had two goals and two assists
in the rout of Montreal, I asked Bednar if he could step back a bit and assess just how impressed he is
with the Avalanche's record, performance and dominance. In other words, as the praise of the Avalanche pours in from outsiders, what does the coach think?
"Really happy, pleased and impressed for sure," Bednar said. "Probably the most important thing for
me is the focus of the team and we're on a pretty even keel with some guys who are playing hard and playing well. They're
competitive and committed pretty much every time the puck drops. I would say it's been a long, good run for us. Hopefully
that can continue. But it's not easy to win in this league for sure. We've had our moments, but you take the season as a whole
to get to this point with this record, it's been a really good job."
Yes, there's a nit-picking asterisk here about the record the Avalanche will take into the Tuesday night home
game against the Vancouver Canucks and coach Adam Foote, whose No. 52 hangs from the Ball Arena rafters.
Thanks to three-point
games, the single point that goes to the overtime
or shootout loser, and the separate OTL column, the NHL standings sometimes are a contrivance and misleading, creating the
impression that teams are doing "better" than they truly are. The biggest myth is that something like 20-20-7 is
".500" hockey. That's the starting point for breaking down the Avalanche's 2025-26 record to date. Or anyone's record
to date. The Avs have 7 losses. Not 1. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. But no question, with major-league goaltending,
bolstered depth, the return (and return to form) of Gabriel Landeskog, and continuing eye-popping play from Nathan MacKinnon
and Cale Makar, the Avalanche deserves to be the Stanley Cup favorite.
As Bednar and the Avalanche left Ball Arena last Saturday afternoon, Carle and the
Pioneers were about to make the trip up I-25 for the second half of the doubleheader. It wasn't logistically unique, but the
two-games-in-a-day phenomenon usually has involved hockey in the afternoon and Denver Mammoth lacrosse in the evening.
Carle, still only 38, took over at DU in 2018 after Jim Montgomery left to take the Dallas Stars'
coaching job. From there, Montgomery moved on to Boston and to his current gig with the St. Louis Blues. Montgomery's lack
of security and stability as an NHL head coach helps explain why his former Pioneers assistant, Carle, seems in no hurry to
land an NHL job and depart DU.
Now
in his eighth season as head coach, Carle has two NCAA Frozen Four championships on his resume, from 2022 and 2024. He signed
a multi-year contract extension in May 2025. That seemed to signal his lack of interest in an NHL head-coaching job, though
minds can change.
The
only disappointment about Saturday about was that the Hall of Fame Game didn't come close to selling out. Announced attendance
for the matchup of traditional NCAA powers was 12,228. Those who showed up for the collegiate game were treated to a wild
night, with the Pioneers -- very young, fourth-ranked nationally going into the weekend -- coming back from a 3-1 deficit
after two periods to force overtime before Javon Moore got the game-winner for the Gophers at 4:25 of OT.
“It was a really entertaining game, obviously for the fans,”
Carle said. "I thought the energy, atmosphere in the building was excellent. I just want to thank them all for coming
out and supporting the event. It's a special opportunity to be able to play here at Ball Arena. I’m appreciative of
our administration and people at Kroenke [Sports and Entertainment] for making this game happen as well and giving our players
this wonderful experience. Didn't get the result we wanted
tonight, but we played well in a lot of ways. . . Our resiliency in the third period was displayed in a big-time way. We've
done that a few times this year, and unfortunately they made one more play than we did at the end."
Carle said the Pioneers were "appreciative"
about playing in Ball Arena.
"A lot of people put in a lot of time and
effort to make this happen," he said. "It’s an exempt game, so it’s a game that you have to bid on.
That takes time and effort from the administration. Setting up a building like this, working with Kroenke Sports and Entertainment
group, getting the Avs on board. It’s a big lift to be able to actually secure an event and then not do it in your home
building. A lot of times these [Hall of Fame or other extra games] are in the home building. It’s a wonderful opportunity
to be able to get all these guys like Boston (Buckberger), who aspire to play in the NHL, to be in an NHL locker room.
They had the opportunity to do that tonight and get a little taste of it. And obviously, our fans were treated to a wonderful
game and unfortunately go home a little bit disappointed, as we will."
Boston Buckberger, the junior defenseman who had one of DU's goals, said the Pioneers were excited
to play in the NHL arena, taking a break from playing their home games at the on-campus Magness Arena, which seats 6,315 for
hockey.
“I mean, it's amazing," Buckberger said. "You look around, you look up, and (it’s
a) 18,000-19,000 seat arena. You don't get to do that every day. And obviously it's all of our dreams to play in the NHL.
So to play in a rink like this is just unbelievable, and I think that we really enjoyed it. Obviously, like DC (David Carle)
said, we didn't get the result, but it's obviously a great experience for all of us, and we can just keep building off it
for our future games here.”
Salmu Salminen had two of the
DU goals in the loss. The Pioneers remained 5-1 in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference standings and are
9-5-1 overall.
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Here are my profiles of the two coaches -- the Colorado Avalanche's Jared
Bednar and the Denver Pioneers' David Carle.
My piece on Bednar ran in the Denver Post as the Avs were about to open their first training
camp under the new coach in 2016. (Yes, it has been that long ago.)
My story on Carle was in Mile High Sports Magazine as MHS announced its
choice of Carle as Colorado's 2022 College Coach of the Year.
They're older pieces, but they remain definitive background profiles on the two coaches.
Jared Bednar: Paying his dues ... and then some.
David Carle: Making the most of a horrible break
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For full day-to day coverage of the Avalanche from Mile High Sports' Colleen Flynn, go HERE
