Adversity has struck the Colorado Avalanche and it’s going to be interesting to see how they respond.
The Avalanche had a week off between their Game 5 series clincher against the Minnesota Wild and the opening game of the Western Conference Final on Wednesday. Superstar defenseman Cale Makar, who was banged up throughout that series, had six days to rest his shoulder. But it wasn’t enough. Makar missed Game 1. And the Avs went on to lose 4-2 against an experienced Vegas Golden Knights team.
Bednar said before the game that Makar is day-to-day. He skated on his own before the team took the ice for morning skate.
It’s not that Makar’s absence was an excuse. The Avs made far too many mistakes and got way too cute with too many chances that they can clean up. But this is the adversity they’re now facing. If Makar doesn’t play Game 2 and they lose that game, they’re not going to be in a good place with the series shifting to T-Mobile Arena.
With or without him, there is an urgency to win. Without him, the urgency heightens.
“You definitely want to win. You want to take advantage of home-ice advantage, it’s as easy as that,” team captain Gabe Landeskog said. “What’s in the past is in the past. They win this one. Whether we won this one or they won this one, we were going to regroup the same. Learn from it, see what we can do better, and get ready for Game 2.”
10 Takeaways
1. It’s no question the Avalanche were desperately missing Makar. The trickle-down effect of what happens when he’s unavailable hurts in many ways. It’s not just his absence, but where those minutes get distributed.
But regardless, this team has the lineup to win games without Makar. I really liked how head coach Jared Bednar talked about Makar not playing. He wasn’t going to use it as an excuse.
“Some of the areas that we struggled with tonight, those are his strengths,” Bednar said. “But he’s not playing, you have to find a way.”
2. You have to credit the Vegas Golden Knights for how they started this game. The Avs were rolling from the drop of the puck and looked like they usually do to start a series after a lengthy break. They traditionally use rest as a weapon and tried to do it again.
Against the Minnesota Wild, they had three goals before the Wild could find their legs. It looked like they might get one early again on Wednesday night, but the Knights didn’t let the Avs get many shots to the net. They checked well in front of their goalie, weathered the storm, and started to attack offensively before the first period was even halfway through.
Carter Hart was also great when he needed to be.
3. There were a lot of reasons why the Avs lost, but there was one particular play that I didn’t like.
I don’t understand the penalty called on Ross Colton in the second period. He and Rasmus Andersson were battling for positioning in front of the net, and Andersson appeared to embellish getting roughed up by Colton when the glove came up to his face.
When he went down, he lay there for several seconds while Colorado cycled the puck in the offensive zone. Referee Wes McCauley eventually blew the whistle and instantly waved Colton to the box. I’m not sure how you can confidently call a penalty on something you didn’t see. Am I missing something?
3. Still, you want to see better coverage on the penalty kill and not allowing that to lead to a goal against. There will be missed calls and bad calls throughout this series. How they deal with that will be determined by how they play after the fact. They failed on that PK.
4. For all the great saves Scott Wedgewood made early, that initial goal that beat him five-hole was one he definitely wants back. That was Dylan Coghlan’s first goal since 2021.
“Liked my game. Obviously didn’t like the goals,” Wedgewood said. “Yeah, made some big saves early. They get two quickly in the second and the third one … hindsight is 20/20. I didn’t think he was going to have time to get his stick on it, so probably should have trapped him. But he made a good play.”
5. It was also a broken play all around. Brock Nelson was caught behind the play, while Artturi Lehkonen and Josh Manson were covering the two guys along the boards. I believe Valeri Nichushkin had gone for a change, allowing Coghlan to skate in down the center of the ice with room to shoot.
6. Going back to the Wedgewood comment about the game winner, that was a tough play for Sam Malinski. His point shot at the end of the power play was blocked, and it went right to Ben Hutton as he came out of the penalty box for a 2-on-1 going the other way. Wedgewood made the initial save before Howden gloved it down to himself and got a stick on it with what little space he had before the puck went in to make sure it counts.
I just don’t know if Malinski had enough space to get that puck through. With that much time remaining on the penalty, I feel like you have to be sure that you’re going to get it through. If not, a guy is exiting the box behind you that can become a problem. But as Wedgewood said, hindsight is 20/20.
7. Here’s an interesting stat that I didn’t learn until postgame. Dating back to their Stanley Cup year, the Avalanche were 8-2 in Game 1s, with the two losses coming to Seattle at home and Winnipeg on the road. They obviously ended up losing the Kraken series, but they won four straight against the Jets to take that series in five.
As for the Golden Knights, they entered this series with an 8-1 record in Game 1s since their Stanley Cup year in 2023.
The Avs are now 8-3, and Vegas is 9-1.
8. I’ve always disliked power plays that get split between periods. I wonder if there’s a way to track them and see what PPs look like in those instances. Ultimately, it’s hard to start a period with a power play when you’re not in a rhythm already. The Avs had two of them in this game, and neither of them led to much after the lengthy breaks. They had just 50 seconds in the first period and 35 seconds in the middle frame before the buzzer sounded.
9. On the one power play they did have with time to spare, they scored. It was also on a 6-on-4 with Wedgewood on the bench late in the third. It’ll be interesting to see how the power play looks in the following games when they get a full two minutes to operate. You have to win the special teams battles more often than not in a series like this.
10. Bednar jumbled the lines in the third period. He had Martin Necas and Kadri playing the wing with Nelson. Lehkonen was elevated to the first line with Nathan MacKinnon and Landeskog. Those are the types of change you can make when you have the flexibility this roster has with Nic Roy as an extra centerman.
Ultimately, it didn’t lead to much. Landeskog scored on the power play to make it 3-2 after the early third-period goal from Valeri Nichushkin in the bottom six. But that was all the Avs could muster.
