Kuemper wants to 'keep building' in first season as Avalanche goalie

DENVER --Darcy Kuemper keeps winning, but the Colorado Avalanche goalie is far from satisfied.

Although Kuemper hasn't lost in regulation in nearly two months heading into Colorado's home game against the Boston Bruins at Ball Arena on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET; TNT, SN, TVAS, ESPN+, NHL LIVE), he believes he has room for improvement.
"I definitely want to keep building, adjusting to the guys in front of me and how we play," Kuemper said. "Right now, it's a lot of fun winning, but I know I can be better and just keep working away at it."
Kuemper is 19-5-1 with a 2.63-goals against average, .913 save percentage and one shutout this season, including 10-0-1 with a 2.37 GAA, .924 save percentage and one shutout in 13 starts since a 3-1 loss at the Dallas Stars on Nov. 26. During the Avalanche's 16-game home winning streak that began Nov. 11, the 31-year-old is 9-0-0 with a 2.52 GAA and .915 save percentage in 12 starts.
Undoubtedly, Kuemper and backup Pavel Francouz, who made 23 saves in a 2-0 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday, have benefitted from playing behind a potent Avalanche offense featuring Nathan MacKinnon, Nazem Kadri, Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog and Cale Makar that leads the NHL in scoring with 4.10 goals per game. But as the season progresses and the Stanley Cup Playoffs near, scoring will become more difficult and that's when Colorado will need Kuemper most.
"That's when you want to play your best hockey," Kuemper said. "Come playoff time, you want to take your game up a notch and be a difference-maker. Obviously, I'm going to focus on the games before that and then adjust once we get there."

Colorado (29-8-3) has won seven in a row, is 17-1-1 in its past 19 games, tied with the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning for the NHL lead with 61 points and has its sights squarely set on winning the Stanley Cup for the first time since 2001. Despite winning the Presidents' Trophy as the top regular-season team in the NHL by going 39-13-4 last season, the Avalanche lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in six games in the best-of-7 Stanley Cup Second Round.
The most significant change Colorado made following that defeat was acquiring Kuemper in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes on July 28 after Philipp Grubauer, a finalist for the Vezina Trophy given to the top goalie in the NHL, left to sign with the expansion Seattle Kraken. The Avalanche gave up a lot to get Kuemper, sending a first-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, a conditional third-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft and defenseman Connor Timmins to Arizona.
That will put the spotlight squarely on Kuemper when the playoffs begin.
"No question, when you're on a team that has Stanley Cup aspirations and you're a Stanley Cup favorite, that comes part and parcel with that," said ESPN and NHL Network analyst Kevin Weekes, a retired NHL goalie. "So that is a huge opportunity for him. This is the best opportunity he's had."
In 19 postseason games with the Minnesota Wild and Coyotes in his first nine NHL seasons, Kuemper is 7-6 with a 2.86 GAA, .913 save percentage and one shutout. His most recent taste of the playoffs came in 2020 when he helped the Coyotes defeat the Nashville Predators in four games in the best-of-5 Stanley Cup Qualifiers before a five-game loss to the Avalanche in the Western Conference First Round.
"Any chance you get to play in the playoffs, that's kind of what you grow up dreaming about and that's the most fun time of the year to be playing hockey," Kuemper said. "So for an opportunity like that, obviously, we've got to have a good regular season here, but things are going well so far."
It's been an adjustment for Kuemper playing behind the Avalanche after coming from the Coyotes, who had less offensive talent and played a tight-checking game focused on limiting scoring chances against.
"With all their skill and their talent, and they do have an outstanding defensive corps, but they are going to yield chances," Weekes said. "It's not like they're playing kitty bar the door, but you are going to see some Grade A chances, and he is a good enough goalie that when he sees them, he can make a lot of saves. That's something that Grubauer did. He was a Vezina Trophy finalist. And he's equally capable of doing that."

Kuemper has had some rough spots during the transition, including being pulled after allowing three goals on eight shots in a 5-4 overtime win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Jan. 8 and giving up five goals on 32 shots in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Nashville Predators on Jan. 11. Colorado coach Jared Bednar noted Kuemper's inconsistency earlier this season, saying, "He's got to clean up and make sure they're not getting any easy ones."
But Kuemper has elevated his play in the past two weeks when the Avalanche have needed him. He's 3-0-0 with a 1.15 GAA and .962 save percentage in four starts since the overtime loss to the Predators, including a 20-save shutout against the Coyotes on Jan. 15 and a 40-save performance in a 4-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings on Jan. 20.
"Our team was really good for a long stretch here and our goaltending was good some nights, OK some others, just average on some other nights. But they're all part of our team," Bednar said after the win against the Kings. "Now we've played two other games where our team has been subpar for our standard and our goaltenders have given us a chance to win."
Kuemper said he's at his best when he's "just seeing the game well, slowing it down, making my reads well so I'm always in the right position." He's approached this season as a building process and, with 42 games regular-season games remaining, he's not yet halfway to the end of that process.
"I just want to keep adjusting and keep building and getting better," Kuemper said. "I want to peak at the end of the season. That's the goal. Obviously, we've been scoring a lot of goals and winning a lot of games and that makes it fun."