Fans might be panicking, but the Avalanche aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n
The Avalanche are in new territory, trailing the Golden Knights in the Western Conference finals after one game. They\u2019re confident they\u2019ll bounce back, but a few things need to happen for that to take place.<\/p>\n
Here are three keys for the Avalanche in Game 2:<\/p>\n
No, really, where is Makar?<\/p>\n
Cale Makar skated for the second day in a row, this time for about 40 minutes at Colorado\u2019s practice facility. He took a bit of contact while working on puck retrievals before eventually getting in some shots. To the untrained eye he looked fine, but all that matters is how he feels. Jared Bednar said they\u2019ll know more about Makaar\u2019s status Friday morning. If he can\u2019t go, the Avalanche likely must decide between Nick Blankenburg and Jack Ahcan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just watching, like, Nick played a handful in a row in the (Minnesota) series as well,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cWe looked at him, we\u2019ve looked at Jack, and we\u2019re just trying to find the consistency of one of those guys in their game that we can roll out there and eat some good minutes and help us win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Get some shots through<\/p>\n
The Avalanche like to run a lot of their offense through their defense, even in the absence of Makar. That was an issue in Game 1, as the Golden Knights blocked 15 of the 25 shot attempts from the Avalanche defense. Sam Malinski had six of his seven shot attempts stopped before they could even get to Carter Hart. Even if it doesn\u2019t hit the net, the Avalanche defensemen have to do a better job of getting their shots through that first layer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when they are taking lanes away, we might have to start looking to the side of the net for some of our forwards\u2019 sticks and maybe finding ways to change the angle. Maybe one extra pass, but we want to get pucks down there,\u201d Malinski said.<\/p>\n
Score first<\/p>\n
Scoring first has been a struggle recently for the Avalanche. The opposition has scored first in four straight games during this postseason, meaning the Avalanche have had to do a lot of chasing, which can be exhausting. That must change if this team wants to bounce back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t done a great job of getting out to leads early,\u201d Devon Toews said. \u201cSo we\u2019re learning to play from behind, and we got to start to try to take the lead a little bit more in these games, and put our foot down and put pressure on teams to try to attack us instead of us having to attack them.\u201d<\/p>\n
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