DENVER -- On Tuesday, Cale Makar was announced as a finalist for the Norris Trophy, which goes to the NHL's best defenseman as voted by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
On Wednesday, he was announced as a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award, which goes to the NHL's most outstanding player as voted by members of the NHL Players' Association.
Yet he has two points in the Western Conference First Round -- none in the past three games, none at even strength in five games -- and the Colorado Avalanche face elimination in Game 6 against the Dallas Stars at Ball Arena on Thursday (9:30 p.m. ET; Victory+, MAX, TBS, ALT, SNE, SN360, TVAS).
"I've got to be a lot better," he said. "I think there's been glimpses where I've been pretty good, and again, for me, it's not always about the points. It's about being good on both sides of the ice, and it starts with myself and my feet. I think when I'm doing that, I feel like we can roll, especially on the back end, so I think there's a lot of things that I can do a lot better, and it's do-or-die now, so we've got to step it up."
Makar has set a high bar, and he holds himself to it.
He won the Calder Trophy in 2019-20, when the PHWA voted him the NHL's rookie of the year. He won the Norris and the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2021-22, when the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup.
This is the fifth time he has been a Norris finalist. He led NHL defensemen in goals (30), assists (62) and points (92) in the regular season, setting NHL career highs in goals and points.
Entering this series, he was averaging 1.11 points per game in the playoffs in his NHL career. Among defensemen, only Bobby Orr has averaged more (1.24).
The bad news: Makar has struggled to produce against the Stars again. This is the second time he has gone three straight games without a point in the playoffs in his NHL career, and the other time was in the second round last season, when Colorado lost to Dallas in six games. He was minus-6 over those three games; he's minus-4 over these three.
The good news: After three straight playoff games without a point against the Stars last season, he had three points (two goals, one assist) over the next two against them. Maybe he's due. He has 19 shots on goal in this series, second on Colorado to center Nathan MacKinnon (31 shots), who leads the team with seven points (five goals, two assists). The Avalanche have had 57.7 percent of the shot attempts with Makar on the ice at 5-on-5.
"Well, listen, I think, like, we're overly critical of his series so far," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "Like, I've looked through a lot of things. Cale's watched it all. He's had a couple games that he can be better in, for sure. But it's a tough series."
Bednar said he looks at the way Makar is defending and how many chances he's getting in the home-plate scoring area. He thought Makar was the best player on the ice for either team in Game 4, a 4-0 Colorado win. Makar had no points, but he had five shots on goal and nine shot attempts.
"I'm not worried about him," Bednar said. "I think he's going to bounce back with a huge game for us."
Asked about frustration, Makar said sometimes the puck doesn't go in, and you need to take a step back and look at the positives. Then he came back to this: "I just want to get better every single day still and make sure that I'm doing the right things that I need to in order for this team to succeed. I think it's just, I've got another level that I've got to get to. That's for sure."
That's the standard for an award winner. That's how you become an award winner.
Bednar said he goes to Makar after games and tells him he was awesome, and Makar shakes his head.
"He's like, 'Ah, it wasn't good here or there,'" Bednar said. "Like, he's got it broken down into every defensive play he thinks he can make, every offensive play he can make. If he doesn't see something that's open on the offensive side, he knows it right way. You don't have to go to him a lot. It's a high standard.
"But I do think that's a good thing. That's what helps make the greats the greats, right? [Every play], they want to execute it perfectly. They want to see everything that's open. That's just not the reality. But I do think that's part of what drives him, is to be the best."
