Dude, Where’s Makar? The Avs without No. 8 were 86’d.
They were beaten, playing out the string to fulfill the NHL’s TV obligations.
This national narrative took hold after the Avs ruled out superstar defenseman Cale Makar on Friday morning.
After watching a future Hall of Famer look uncomfortable during a morning skate, an unnerving question hung over the city on Friday night.
Who would shoulder the burden?
No one.
The Avs were beaten. And now history says they are beaten.
Only one team has lost the first two games on home ice and won a conference finals series. That came in 1945 by the Detroit Red Wings. Goalies didn’t even wear masks regularly back then.
To those watching this series closely between the Avs and Golden Knights, it is not a surprise that Las Vegas is in control.
What is shocking is that the Avs did something they never do. As in ever. In falling 3-1 on Friday night, the Avs squandered a second-period lead.
They were 45-0-0 with an advantage entering the final 20 minutes this season, counting the playoffs.
They had it. Then the sellout crowd couldn’t believe what it witnessed.
In the span of 2 minutes, 7 seconds, the Golden Knights turned what was expected to be a night of joyous relief into full-scale panic and disappointment.
Is there a Staples button Avs coach Jared Bednar can push to fix everything? Or anything?
It started innocently enough with Jack Eichel getting loose down the right side of the ice with 10:45 remaining for his first goal in 11 games.
If it seemed inconceivable that he had gone that long without finding the back of the net, and it was equally unbelievable that he made it.
Scott Wedgewood, harder to solve than an AI-generated password, misplayed the right-handed shot over his right pad. He will not be thrilled when watching the replay, but he was left vulnerable.
Devon Toews got caught in between as Eichel stormed down the ice, trying not to cede ground while fronting Eichel in a 3-on-2 break. Given enough space, Eichel did not miss. Something the Avs did regularly.
What happened next captured why the Avs find themselves aching, their bodies and minds sore after careening into a ditch. They made a glaring mistake, the kind that the Kings and Wild were incapable of taking advantage of in the first two rounds.
Toews, trying to pick up the slack without Makar, couldn’t clear the puck twice.
Within a blink, it was on Ivan Barbashev’s stick and rocketing past Wedgewood’s mask. An empty-netter finished the scoring. And started the blaming.
Don’t pin this on Wedgewood. He played well enough to win. The fingers need to be directed at the inability to finish. Effort was not an issue. It was execution.
“We have chances to extend that lead to 2-0, and think back on some big moments, 4-on-4. We are going to have to force him to make difficult saves,” coach Jared Bednar said. “The difference in winning and losing. … There is a lot about that game I liked. But you have to keep chipping away at the margins.”
The Avs fired 30 shots on goal. But they were not of the highest quality. If Carter Hart doesn’t turn into Corey Hart and start wearing sunglasses at night, it seems unlikely the Avs stage a miraculous comeback.
Hart has allowed three goals. He is not getting beaten by anyone. The only thing that prevented a shutout was Ross Colton plucking in a rebound off Brent Burns’ sniper off Hart’s chest.
But where were the rest of the chances like this? The Avs emphasized the importance of getting dirty goals, of winning in front of the net. And they got none of it.
It doesn’t help that some of their best players remain ghosts in this series, like Brock Nelson, and, if we are being honest, Valeri Nichushkin.
It is as if they don’t exist offensively.
No team is totally prepared to move on without a player as talented as Makar — there is no guarantee he plays in this series because of his injury — but this is why general manager Chris MacFarland traded for Nazem Kadri.
The Avs had only two power-play opportunities and a 4-on-4 that resembled one. Is it too much to ask Kadri, a huge reason the Avs won their last Stanley Cup, to become a Hartbreaker? At 35 years old, perhaps we do not want to know the answer to that after his mistake-filled evening.
That goosebumps win over the Wild seems like a long time ago. After the magical ending of the second round series, the unfathomable seems poised to happen.
The Avs are on the brink on the rink.
The Knights are legitimate. But there would be no way to view this other than as an epic fail if the Avs cannot rally.
The Golden Knights are great between the dots and, clearly, in between the Avs’ ears.
“We cannot ride the roller coaster that fans ride,” Bednar said. “We are not giving up on our season because we have lost two games.”
