DENVER | Darcy Kuemper walks quietly dragging a wheeled suitcase and greets a Signature Flight Support airport employee. He has a big smile on his face.
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On the eve of this sixth game of the Stanley Cup Final, Kuemper is probably keeping the same routine as that of a Wednesday morning in October when he is about to leave for Dallas.
But there, the destination is not the same. And the issue is nothing like that. Kuemper and his Avalanche teammates were minutes away from leaving for Tampa, where the Stanley Cup will once again be in the building.
At 32, the Saskatchewan native has enough experience to forget a bad game. Jared Bednar called his start “ok” in the 3-2 loss to the Lightning.
If Bednar had chosen to go with a dry and honest answer to describe the performance of his number one goaltender after a loss at home, the head coach of the Avalanche opted for a little more diplomacy before the sixth meeting.
Always calm
Asked if he still had confidence in himself, the 50-year-old avoided a possible controversy over the identity of his goalkeeper for the next game.
“Yes, my confidence is high,” he said. He brought us here. We’re in the Stanley Cup Finals and we have a 3-2 lead. I saw what he could do in Game 2 in Tampa. To beat a team like the Lightning, you need solid performance from all of your players. He allowed a bad goal in the last game on the first net. But we had found a way to get back into this meeting. Everyone has to prepare to play a better game. I repeat myself, but our level of trust in Darcy is high. This was the case all year and it will not change now. »
“Darcy stays calm,” added defender Josh Manson. It’s a great quality for a goalkeeper. He knows he can pull off a big performance, he has confidence in his abilities. And we also trust him. »
♦ Injured in a hand and absent from the last three games of the final, winger Andre Burakovsky made the trip to Tampa. Bednar said he was an option for Game 6, but was still being evaluated on a daily basis.