Josh Manson’s Game 1 save another highlight in strong season

DALLAS — Alexandar Georgiev has earned a lot of deserved praise for his mental toughness and resilience after a tough Game 1 to start the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Josh Manson knows that process of rebounding and redeeming himself as well. Manson made a pair of high-profile mistakes for the Avalanche in Game 1 against Winnipeg that led to Jets goals. Flash forward to Game 1 of this series against the Dallas Stars, and Manson made an incredible goal-saving play that turned out to be a huge moment in a 4-3 comeback victory.

“I mean, obviously after the first game in Winnipeg, it was tough. I was pretty down,” Manson said ahead of Game 2 here at American Airlines Center. “So I feel better now. The team winning too makes things easier.”

Dallas forged a 3-0 lead in the first period of Game 1. The Stars nearly made it 4-0 in the final minute. Jamie Benn cut to the net from the right corner with the puck, skated across the front of the crease and waited out Georgiev before sliding the puck past him.

Manson was there behind his goaltender. His touch of the puck popped it into the air, and then his second swatted it out of the air and out of danger.

“Once I saw him kind of get underneath, I figured he was going to try and take it wide. The only place that maybe he was gonna be able to beat him was to slide it back across, so I just kind of came up to the goal line just in case,” Manson said.

“I watched the video and I think it was going to miss the net anyway – if anything, maybe at the post. I was there just in case. I got lucky that I didn’t hit it in the net and hit it in the other direction.”

Maybe it would have gone wide, but had Benn’s shot hit the post there was still a chance it would have banked in off Georgiev or another Stars player would have had the opportunity to pounce. It was a huge play that loomed even larger as the Avalanche mounted a comeback over the final two periods before winning in overtime.

It’s a fun juxtaposition narrative: Manson goes from Game 1 goat in Winnipeg to Game 1 hero in Dallas. But the truth is Manson bounced back well before this. He had a great series against the Jets.

“We really liked his series,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “He was an impactful player on the defending side, the physicality he brings, and as you’ve seen throughout the season, he’s been making a lot of offensive plays, too.”

Colorado added Manson just ahead of the 2022 trade deadline in large part to give this talented defense corps another defense-first physical presence. But Manson has proven to be more than that, particularly this season.

He had some strong offensive years in his younger days with Anaheim, but his 2023-24 campaign (eight goals, 25 points) was his best in six years.

“I think I’m kind of a byproduct of the team for myself,” Manson said. “I’m not a guy that goes out there and just creates offense by himself. My game will thrive a bit more as the team finds success. That’s kind of how I like to look at myself.”

He noted that playing with so many high-end scorers can lead to more points for a player like him. But Manson is a defense-first player with underrated offensive skills. That makes him a great fit next to Samuel Girard, an offense-first player with underrated defensive acumen.

Together, they’re the second pairing on arguably the best defense corps in the NHL. While Cale Makar and Devon Toews deservedly get loads of credit as two of the best defensemen in the world, the Girard-Manson combo has thrived.

Bednar admitted that those two playing so well together made it easier to move Bo Byram in a trade that returned Casey Mittelstadt (along with a corresponding move to land Sean Walker as a Byram replacement).