TORONTO -- Imagine the money you'd make from a casual hockey fan if you'd ask him or her to name the goalie who leads the league in goals-against average and save percentage.
It's not Henrik Lundqvist, Carey Price or Pekka Rinne. The guessing game would go on for quite a while.
No, you would say after collecting your $20 wager, the name you're looking for is none other than Reto Berra.
Say what?
"He's been great -- every game he's played this year, he's given us a chance to win every night," Avs veteran defenseman Francois Beauchemin said Monday. "He's making big saves at key moments. That's what you need from your goalie when you want to be successful.''
The 28-year-old Berra is trying to help save Colorado's season. From management on down to the players in the dressing room, the current seven-game, 15-day road trip was seen as make-or-break for an Avs team that dug a serious hole with a 4-9-1 start.
Colorado has won the first three games of the critical trip in Philadelphia, Boston and Montreal thanks in large part to the Swiss-born Berra, particularly his spectacular 39-save performance Saturday night in Montreal.
They'll need more of that Tuesday night here against the Maple Leafs.
"Right now he's running with this opportunity," said Avs teammate Erik Johnson. "He's a great guy who works hard, he's a guy you want to play hard for.''
Johnson has known Berra for almost a decade, as the two were 2006 draft picks of the St. Louis Blues. The veteran defenseman admires Berra's moxie, given a journey that's not produced immediate NHL results.
"You could always see that he was a big, athletic guy, but you have to give him the most credit for sticking with it," said Johnson. "His confidence was probably down in the dumps the last couple of years. I think with how Picks [No. 3 goalie Calvin Pickard] played, he probably wasn't too sure about his future with us. But he came into camp in really good shape, played really well. When Varly didn't play as well as he had at the start of the season, Reto has stepped in and he's really the main component of why we're playing well right now on this little streak.''
Yes Varly, aka Semyon Varlamov, has struggled with an .890 save percentage in 10 games and he's currently on IR. That has opened the door for Berra, who really took a while to translate his Swiss League success to the NHL when he first came over with the Calgary Flames in 2013-14 and also struggled for most of last season as the Avs backup.
"I wasn't happy with myself last year,'' Berra said Monday after practice at Air Canada Centre. "I've had to learn how it works in the NHL, it's so different than in Switzerland. Probably I took a little time, probably more time than most people.''
Avs goalie coach Francois Allaire has helped a fair bit, too.
"A lot," said Berra. "He's probably the best goalie coach in the world. He helped a lot.''
Former Arizona Coyotes goalie coach and assistant GM Sean Burke have been watching Berra closely lately as part of his duties with Team Europe's World Cup management team. Berra is on a list of candidates for the squad, but whether he makes it or not remains to be seen.
What has Burke seen different in Berra?
"He has calmed his game down," Burke said via text message. "Used to be all over the place, diving to make saves. Big body, using it to his advantage."
Legendary goalie Patrick Roy, the Avs' head coach, said whether you want it or not, the difference in size of the rink in Europe and in the NHL is a factor in goalies adjusting.
"And when we got him, we made some modifications to his technique, we wanted for him to move less in his net, we wanted to him to be more sound in his net," Roy said in French on Monday.
"It probably took more time for that process to take place. But I would tell you that by the end of last season, he started to get going, he played some real good games for us. He had an excellent training camp this year, it forced our hand in sending Pickard to the AHL.''
Roy is confident that once Varlamov gets healthy, he'll rediscover his form as a No. 1. While Berra will surely come down to earth a little, if his newfound form keeps him as a solid option, it certainly gives Colorado an interesting 1-2-3 punch given that Pickard was just named AHL goalie of the month for October.
For now though, it's all about Berra, with the team hoping he can maintain his form and the goalie himself enjoying his NHL breakthrough.
That a picture of him appears at the top of goalie stats is a nice perk too.
"I like it, yeah. It's really nice," Berra smiled. "Even friends from Switzerland send me pictures of it. It's a really good time for me right now. I'm just trying to enjoy it and keep working hard.''
