DENVER (AP) \u2014 Cale Makar sat out another practice session Tuesday on the eve of the Western Conference Final against Vegas.<\/p>\n
Any cause for concern over the health status of the Colorado Avalanche defenseman heading into Game 1 on Wednesday?<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d coach Jared Bednar said. \u201cNot yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Makar, a Norris Trophy finalist, left the ice following a collision late in Game 5 against Minnesota, only to return as Colorado won the game \u2014 and the second-round series \u2014 4-3 in overtime. He also briefly left Game 1 after taking a hit along the boards, with his right leg flying into the air before falling to the ice.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old Makar has four goals and an assist while averaging nearly 25 minutes of ice time through two rounds. He’s a crucial part of their offensive and special teams plans.<\/p>\n
Asked what he’d say to fans worried about missing Makar for Game 1, fellow defenseman Sam Malinski responded: “I don\u2019t know what to tell them. Obviously, it would be great to have him out here. You can\u2019t replace him, and we\u2019re going to miss him out there. Yeah, hopefully we can still get it done without him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Makar has missed some recent practices but no games as the Avalanche have gone 8-1 so far in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Should Makar not be able to go, it puts more responsibilities on Malinski, Devon Toews, Josh Manson, Brett Kulak, Jack Ahcan, Nick Blankenburg and the 41-year-old Brent Burns.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re all going to have to play a little bit more and we\u2019ll be challenged with different situations,” Malinski explained. “I might have to penalty kill or whatever it is. But, yeah, I wouldn\u2019t say we feel pressure. We\u2019re just going to have to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n
“If he can\u2019t go, it is what it is,\u201d Manson said of Makar. \u201cThat\u2019s a huge piece. You don\u2019t replace a guy like that, right, so hopefully he can. If not, then guys will step and you fill roles and you just do what you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forward Artturi Lehkonen returned to practice Tuesday. He’s been dealing with an upper-body injury and didn\u2019t play in the final two games of the Minnesota series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER (AP) \u2014 Cale Makar sat out another practice session Tuesday on the eve of the Western Conference…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[2320,193,1772,3592,1116,64573,192,144,5277,1543,5,4015,1117,1544,1326,161,4,19340,3494,3492,61504,48059,4520],"class_list":["post-579014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-colorado-avalanche","tag-artturi-lehkonen","tag-avalanche","tag-brent-burns","tag-brett-kulak","tag-cale-makar","tag-cale-makar-avalanche-golden-knights-stanley-cup","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-coloradoavalanche","tag-devon-toews","tag-hockey","tag-jack-ahcan","tag-jared-bednar","tag-josh-manson","tag-las-vegas","tag-minnesota","tag-nhl","tag-nick-blankenburg","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40777-ap-colorado-sports-only","tag-product-40798-ap-nevada-sports-only","tag-sam-malinski"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579014","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=579014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}