Mediocre No More: Bednar Out, Sullivan In

For the Colorado Avalanche and GM Kirklan Lycar, winning is a priority. The franchise has averaged 117 points per season since Lycar took over, not to mention two Stanley Cup Finals appearances and a cup win. Despite the aforementioned success Lycar again made headlines this past week firing Jared Bednar and welcoming Mike Sullivan into the organization as the team’s new head coach. “These decisions are never easy, to say the least. But every day we come to work here, we emphasize as an organization from the top down to get better each and every day. We felt as though a change needed to be made.” When asked, if the fact that a coach of Mike Sullivan’s pedigree was available made this decision easier, Lycar would go on to state “The fact that Mike didn’t have a contract going into this season was something that shocked us for sure, it was rumoured around the league that a few teams were looking to make a play on Mike and with the teams play of late, we thought it’d be best to act on this sooner rather than later.” 

Mike Sullivan is expected to bring a wealth of experience, knowledge and respect amongst his players into the Avs locker room. Sullivan had this to say when asked about plans for the club and the current state of where he sees the team, “First and foremost, it’s time to get back to winning hockey games. I’m so excited to be a part of the culture here, it’s a winning organization and that is what I intend to do.” Reporters would be remised if they didn’t poke around about the Tavares trade, with one reporter going as far as to asking the question - point blank, “do you wish John Tavares was a part of the club you signed with today?” Sullivan answered as vanilla as you’d expect “I certainly don’t feel it is necessary to comment on a player that is not a part of the Avalanche organization.” 

Interestingly enough, Elliot Friedman reported in last week’s edition of 31 thoughts that Sullivan has been a part of Lycar’s inner circle since Nashville’s decision to not re-sign the coach; many wonder if Sullivan may have played a hand in the John Tavares trade, this hiring certainly spilled fuel on this fire. Lycar however chose not to answer this question and shot back with somewhat of an annoyed tone “To suggest we had some sort of boys club going on here, is first of all absurd and secondly a disrespect to Jared Bednar, I consult daily with a variety of people around the hockey world, and for a time Mike was one of them, he is now the head coach of the Colorado Avalanche and we couldn’t be happier.” 

While the hockey world wonders what GM Kirklan Lycar may have up his sleeve next, one thing is for certain; Lycar is sick and tired of the average hockey his team has demonstrated of late “The club’s efforts over the last 12 months is not what we are about, some people will say but you had 94 points last year or whatever it was, but that isn’t good enough. We’re on the outside looking in right now through 20 games, and that just isn’t good enough, there are times as a manager you yourself have to look in the mirror and say, what can I do to be better? We will be better moving forward, that I can promise.”