Kick save and a baby? Turns out Scott Wedgewood’s best save Monday wasn’t on Dylan Strome’s backhand after all. It was keeping wife Brittany from strangling him on-site.
“What do you want me to do with the second period?” Mrs. Wedgewood had asked the Avalanche goaltender during a 5-2 Martin Luther King Day win over the Washington Capitals at Ball Arena.
“Well, there’s only a period left,” Wedgewood replied, “but let me finish. You’re not going to be popping that quick.”
The Wedgewoods, you see, are expecting their second child any day now. Which can sort of, potentially, complicate things when you’re in the middle of your 20th win of the year. Never mind the middle of the best season of your NHL career.
“I think the coaches trust me, the team trusts me,” Wedgewood, who stopped 22 shots from the Caps and improved his record to a sterling 20-3-4, told me Monday. “It’s just one of those things where, the more I get out there, the more confident I feel.”
You could almost feel that confidence flashing over the final two periods, which saw Colorado outscore Washington 4-1 down the stretch.
On a 4-on-4 midway through the second period, the 33-year-old veteran stopped two wristers by the Caps’ Ethen Frank in quick succession.
Ball went bonkers.
“WED-GIE!”
“WED-GIE!”
“WED-GIE!”
With 33.1 seconds left in that same stanza, Wedgewood stoned a backhand from Strome to preserve a 3-2 cushion.
“WED-GIE!”
“WED-GIE!”
“WED-GIE!”
“(He’s) been great,” said defenseman Cale Makar, who recorded an assist and had another goal scratched off by a curious penalty late. “I think we have two starters (in the net), and they push each other to be better, and it’s fun for us. We can throw whoever in and trust them.”
That trust runs so deep right now that even goofy referee calls are more or less laughed off in the Avs locker room. Seven minutes into the contest, replays showed Washington winger Anthony Beauvillier whipping past Wedgewood’s right post and taking the net-minder’s stick with him along the way.
It got weirder. As the offensive player curled behind the Avs’ goal, Sam Girard followed and poked at the puck. Beauvillier appeared to trip over the loose stick and fall to the ice. The goalie, who was still standing in the crease, five or six feet away from the Caps player as he slipped, got slapped with a phantom tripping call.
“(The ref) thought maybe I had just dropped it into (Beauvillier), but my plan was just tip, save, rebound,” Wedgewood recalled. “My stick poked somebody’s hip or something. It just broke (my)… grip and I lost control of it … I thought Sammy had the penalty until (the ref) pointed at me when he was skating away. I was just like, ‘All right.'”
Some 6:56 into the opening stanza, the Caps were gifted an extra man, and 31 seconds later, Washington cashed the check, as Jakob Chychrun wristed it into the net to knot the score at 1-1.
“I’ve never seen that before,” Makar chuckled later. “Losing a stick on the initial shot and then somehow the ref calls you out. I don’t know. It’s a phantom stick.”
Either that, or Wedgie’s some kind of Phantom Menace. Or a stinking Jedi.
“You tell me whether it was a penalty or not,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Obviously, it was (Monday).”
Bad break. And speaking of breaks, our man Scott is overdue for one. Signed as a 1B-option-slash-backup in net, he’s been a good servant to the burgundy and blue, and an even better soldier.
He’s also on pace for 50 starts. The Avs have 35 games left after Monday. If Wedgewood starts half, or close to that, that’s still probably 45 or 46 appearances. His previous career high on that front was 37 games, spent with the Devils and Coyotes in ’21-22. The last time Wedgewood played more than 40 games in any pro season was 48 with the AHL’s Rochester Americans in ’18-19.
“It’s been awesome,” Wedgewood told me. “I mean, every time I back up, I want to play. You know, it’s the tough part of the position is (that) only one guy gets to play.
“Energy-wise, that’s the thing. It’s been weird. I’ve played the most ever (games), I feel like, now, and I’ve also missed seven or eight potential starts with just the way the season’s gone. I had a little bit of an ankle thing a couple weeks ago after playing four in five days — or whatever it was, four in six days. Just shot a nerve, a little bit of an accidental back issue. The problem is, it’s not major things; it’s just the grind of hockey and the weird little tweaks and twists that unfortunately happen.
“But, no, (the) body feels good. And not making the Olympic team will be a nice break, but also (for) the newborn. So, yeah, the (break) will come quick with (the birth) and everything. But we’re pumped for the time with that.”
They’re pumped for this homestand — the Wedgewoods are looking to induce their little one soon so that the birth will come before the Avs start a Canadian/Eastern road swing from Jan. 25-31.
“We’re planning to have (the birth) before we leave (for Canada),” Wedgewood said. “We would’ve been on very dangerous watch time if we’d waited.”
Dad, especially. Oh, baby.
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