{"id":468663,"date":"2026-02-23T21:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/468663\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T21:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T21:02:14","slug":"cale-makar-defensive-lapse-draws-scrutiny-in-canadas-olympic-loss-to-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/468663\/","title":{"rendered":"Cale Makar defensive lapse draws scrutiny in Canada\u2019s Olympic loss to USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Photo credit: James Lang-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s call it like it is, Canada\u2019s pride took a serious hit last night against the Americans.<\/p>\n

Seeing Cale Makar, the so-called best defenseman in the world, end up in that kind of scenario is heartbreaking.<\/p>\n

One sequence shows the Avalanche defenseman completely losing his footing while trying to stop a USA rush.<\/p>\n

Moreover, on the play in question, look at how awful his defensive recovery was in attempting to contain the opponent.<\/p>\n

We can agree that on the Olympic stage, with the whole world watching, that\u2019s the kind of moment you want to forget.<\/p>\n

Social media instantly erupted to tear down the Canadian prodigy after that monumental blunder.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no other way to put it \u2014 seeing a player of that caliber look so vulnerable against our biggest rivals is hard to fathom.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest, the pressure of a Canada-USA Olympic game is on another level for any player. Makar may have a trophy cabinet packed with hardware, but he looked like a mere passenger on that sequence.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old defenseman appeared to slow up in the middle of the ice, looking isolated as the opponent broke away.<\/p>\n

The criticism didn\u2019t take long to surface, especially with the sky-high expectations surrounding this edition of Team Canada.<\/p>\n

Cale Makar\u2019s costly mistake fuels backlash in Canada-USA loss<\/p>\n

Here is the sequence in question:<\/p>\n

“What was Makar doing.<\/p>\n

This is y\u2019all\u2019s ‘best defender in the league'”<\/p>\n

That sequence will remain etched in the memory of American fans, who haven\u2019t hesitated to mock it. Makar has had more glorious nights with the Avalanche, but the timing here could not have been worse.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether this fall will affect his confidence in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Previously on All Montreal Hockey<\/p>\n

POLL<\/p>\n

5 HOURS AGO|208 ANSWERS<\/p>\n

Cale Makar defensive lapse draws scrutiny in Canada\u2019s Olympic loss to USA<\/p>\n

Did Cale Makar\u2019s mistake cost Canada the game against the USA?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo credit: James Lang-Imagn Images Let\u2019s call it like it is, Canada\u2019s pride took a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[1116,56224,5,2602,3037,422],"class_list":{"0":"post-468663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-cale-makar","9":"tag-gold-medal-game","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-olympics","12":"tag-team-canada","13":"tag-usa-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116121970919653372","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}