Renck vs. Keeler: Who is more to blame for Avs’ collapse: Chris MacFarland or Jared Bednar?

Renck Pete DeBoer wanders into Denver collecting jars of hearts tearing our love for the Avs apart As the Avs squandered a two-goal lead in Match this went beyond hurt This was a choke Colorado ran out its best unit since winning the Stanley Cup in and could not escape the first round This type of playoff death spawns anger and demands a full autopsy It raises the question as change percolates in the air Who is more to blame general manager Chris MacFarland or coach Jared Bednar Keeler It takes a village to burn a dream Do you cast blame at the feet of the guy who s never won a Contest in Bednar Or the guy who traded Mikko Rantanen in MacFarland For me it s both Now to be clear CMac didn t arrangement the Moose to Colorado s new biggest postseason rival that would be hockey insanity But let s also be real Rantanen isn t a Star and isn t sending you home with a hat trick if MacFarland doesn t give up on contract talks and ship him to Carolina in January for depth parts It seemed like the right idea at the time as long as you never ever saw an angry Rantanen again in the postseason until the Stanley Cup Finals Yeah whoops Renck Both left their DNA at American Airlines Center MacFarland deserves credit for overseeing an in-season HDTV roster makeover His haul for Mikko Rantanen both in the contract to Carolina and the pieces added because of the cleared cap space provided hope for another Cup He slid all his chips into the middle of the table which we love but overlooked the awkward fit of Brock Nelson and allowed himself to perform the foolish math that several complementary pieces add up to a better option than Rantanen in the playoffs The Avs needed to exchange Rantanen to shake up the locker room but MacFarland landed terrific regular-season players who turned into postseason ghosts Keeler CMac had the right idea but his pieces let him down The season turned on that Moose deal didn t it Only we presumed for months that it d turned for the better Necas clicked pretty promptly with Nathan MacKinnon while Mikko looked fairly miserable in Raleigh And in hindsight that was the trouble Sending an all-time Avs legend to a hockey wasteland in Tobacco Road came back to bite the burgundy and blue in about the worst way imaginable Which in hindsight also emboldened Rantanen s desire to get out of Carolina and maybe emboldened his desire to land right back in the West ASAP Renck MacFarland is much easier to defend than Bednar He is the greatest coach in Avs history but it feels like he has reached his expiration date Colorado was supposed to be the Chicago Blackhawks of the s winning three titles Instead the Avs have become the Braves of the s a one-hit wonder Bednar got outcoached again especially on special teams He is Mike Tomlin to DeBoer s Bill Belichick So if the Nuggets can axe Michael Malone it s fair to move on from Bednar while Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar remain in their prime Keeler While the Avs are bruised they re not remotely broken They could soon be staring at a crossroads though given their cap situation and lack of big-time draft chips available to move It s uncannily like the Nuggets current profile minus the internal office drama With MacKinnon and Makar Bednar could win - games in the regular season for the next decade easily He s fine They re fine But they also knew this Dallas series was coming for weeks not days They had time They had the personnel Still blew it Bedsy feels a little like the Avs George Karl right now And it might take a hard reset of the entire front office MacFarland included to get Nate and Cale to lift at least one more Cup