Avalanche out of sorts without Makar in Game 1 against Golden Knights

DENVER -- It’s hard to win in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It’s infinitely harder when missing a major cog.

The Colorado Avalanche learned that lesson firsthand against the Vegas Golden Knights in a 4-2 loss in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final on Wednesday.

The Avalanche were without defenseman Cale Makar, who was somewhat surprisingly ruled out after the morning skate with an upper-body injury sustained in the fifth, and final, game of the second-round series against the Minnesota Wild.

Makar had not practiced since the game against the Wild on May 13, missing three on-ice sessions. But, as late as Tuesday, Colorado coach Jared Bednar expressed optimism that Makar would play.

When he couldn’t go, things got a bit messy.

The Avalanche weren’t sharp with the player that conducts the symphony that is the Avalanche at their best. Colorado was 8-1 this postseason with him in the lineup. It is 0-1 with him missing.

On this night, their top line of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas struggled at times and was broken up in the third period. The defensemen in this game were asked to absorb extra minutes and assume unfamiliar roles.

“He’s an important player, right?” Bednar said. “He plays a lot. Some of the areas that we struggled with tonight, those are his strengths, right? Yeah it affects (everything). He’s out there a lot with the MacKinnon line. There’s definitely a trickle-down effect to that.”

Makar played an average of 24:59 across the first nine playoff games. That’s a lot of time to absorb, never mind to replicate Makar’s level. Makar, who missed seven regular-season games, is one of three finalists for the Norris Trophy as the League’s best defenseman.

Jack Ahcan was inserted into the lineup to replace Makar but played a team-low 7:34. Devon Toews played 27:32. Brett Kulak played 23:06, carrying a bunch of the missing minutes.

“I mean obviously he’s a big part,” said Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood, who made 24 saves. “You’re not going to deny that. Proud of the guys who stepped up and played a lot more minutes than they’re probably used to.

“You’re going to lose guys during a playoff run and he’s a big part of it, but it’s next-man-up mentality. I was proud of the d-corps in front of me. It wasn’t much. Just a couple there I’d like to have back.”

Sam Malinski, returning to the lineup after a two-game absence, played 20:31, right around his average. These minutes were against tougher competition in harder situations.

It showed on what proved to be the game-winning goal early in the third period.

The Avalanche were on the power play, a carryover from the second period when Ben Hutton was called for a tripping penalty against Valeri Nichushkin at 19:24.

Malinski had the puck at the point and slammed a shot right into the pads of Brett Howden, the Vegas forward pressuring the point. The puck skittered out of the zone and was claimed by Hutton coming out the box, keying a 2-on-1 against Malinski.

Shockingly, Hutton took the shot. Wedgewood made the save and the puck ricocheted high into the hair. Howden batted it down with his glove and got his stick on the rolling puck to make sure it was a legal goal.

That made it 3-0 with 18:26 remaining. Colorado closed it to 3-2 on goals by Nichushkin and Landeskog before Nic Dowd scored into an empty net with 45 seconds remaining.

“It (stinks), just that play,” Malinski told NHL.com. “Losing by one goal, that’s kind of the difference. I can’t hang my head on it; it’s in the past. Just have to learn from it.

“You can’t replace Cale, but I feel like we have to be better. I guess more speaking (for myself). I know I have a lot to clean up. Just got to bounce back.”

The whole team has to bounce back to even the series heading to Vegas. Game 2 is Friday at Ball Arena (8 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC).

“Execution, like I said, needs to be better,” said MacKinnon, who had his goal streak stopped at six games. “And, you know, obviously we’re capable of being a lot better than that.”

Afterward, Bednar bemoaned the crispness of Colorado’s game. He said it was slow at times, with players babying the puck around the ice and not identifying open passes and not getting the puck behind the first layer of defense often enough.

“We gave them a handful of odd-man rushes that came off our turnovers and missed execution even if we were doing the right thing,” Bednar said. “Liked the third period. I thought we had a lot of juice and energy in the third period to try and fight our way back into it, but we’re going to have to play a full 60 better than we did tonight, especially with the puck.”

Will the Avalanche be better now that they know what life without Makar is like in the playoffs? He was listed as day to day by Bednar on Wednesday, but his status for Game 2 remains unclear.

“I mean we played a decent amount of games throughout the year without Cale, so I don’t know if it will be easier,” Malinski said. “We don’t really have a choice.”