If the Colorado Avalanche had put out an anonymous-respondent poll at the turn of the new year, asking for fans to rank the goaltenders they’d feel confident icing in the postseason, Philipp Grubauer would have been at the top of no one’s list. He may not have even been second, losing faith in favor of Pavel Francouz for a big stretch of the middle of the season.
Of course, that sentiment has gone by the wayside almost entirely. The German-born goaltender forged through games without some of the team’s top players — including a brief stretch where two of their top three forwards were out — to drag the Avalanche straight into the playoffs.