{"id":581945,"date":"2026-05-23T14:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T14:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/581945\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T14:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T14:54:16","slug":"i-dont-make-that-decision-jared-bednar-addresses-cale-makars-injury-timeline-after-avalanches-game-2-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/581945\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2019I Don\u2019t Make That Decision\u2019 \u2014 Jared Bednar Addresses Cale Makar\u2019s Injury Timeline After Avalanche\u2019s Game 2 Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Colorado Avalanche are suddenly facing serious pressure in the Western Conference Final after dropping the first two games against the Vegas Golden Knights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Colorado<\/a> has played both games without star defenseman Cale Makar because of an upper-body injury, and the impact of his absence is clearly showing. Following Colorado\u2019s 3-1 loss in Game 2 at Ball Arena, head coach Jared Bednar finally opened up about Makar\u2019s recovery timeline.<\/p>\n

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Cale Makar\u2019s Status Addressed After Avalanche\u2019s Game 2 Loss<\/p>\n

The Avalanche came into the Western Conference Final as strong favorites after finishing the 2025-26 season with the NHL\u2019s best record and winning the Presidents\u2019 Trophy. They also rolled through the opening two playoff rounds, sweeping the Los Angeles Kings<\/a> before knocking out the Minnesota Wild in five games.<\/p>\n

However, the series against the Golden Knights has been a completely different story.<\/p>\n

Colorado fell 4-2 in Game 1 without Cale Makar and followed it up with another loss in Game 2, this time by a 3-1 score, digging an 0-2 hole heading into Vegas.<\/p>\n

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Makar suffered the injury during Game 5 against Minnesota<\/a> after a late collision left him grabbing his right arm. Although he briefly returned later in the game, Colorado has now been without its star defenseman for the first two games of the conference final.<\/p>\n

While Makar participated in the team\u2019s optional skate on Thursday and was on the ice again Friday morning, he was eventually ruled out before Game 2.<\/p>\n

After the loss, Bednar made it clear the team wants Makar back as soon as possible, but the final decision belongs to the player. \u201cThere\u2019s urgency to get him back since he\u2019s gotten hurt. But it\u2019s gonna be Cale\u2019s decision on when he\u2019s coming back,\u201d Bednar said.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s doing all the work he can possibly do to try to get back as fast as he can. I don\u2019t make that decision for him. But yeah there\u2019s urgency to make sure everyone is in and available and everyone\u2019s playing as well as they possibly can,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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Avalanche Collapse in Third Period of Game 2<\/p>\n

For most of Game 2, the Colorado Avalanche looked in control and carried a lead into the third period. Ross Colton<\/a> opened the scoring at 16:59 of the first period after finishing a rebound created by Brent Burns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the Vegas Golden Knights responded in the third, with Jack Eichel<\/a> tying the game at 9:15 before Ivan Barbashev<\/a> scored the go-ahead goal just over two minutes later. Barbashev later added an empty-netter at 18:57 to seal the 3-1 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know you\u2019re running into adversity and you know you\u2019re gonna lose some games in the playoffs\u2026 We\u2019re going to try to win one game, right? And it can sound cliche is what it is, but that\u2019s how we approach it. Focus on our process [and] what we need to do,\u201d Bednar said.<\/a><\/p>\n

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ALSO READ: \u2018That Should Piss Us Off\u2019: New Jersey Devils D-Man Exposes Laundry List of 2026 Roster\u2019s Problems<\/a><\/p>\n

Now down 2-0 in the series, the Colorado Avalanche badly need Cale Makar back in the lineup for Game 3 if they stand any chance of shifting momentum against a surging Vegas Golden Knights squad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Colorado Avalanche are suddenly facing serious pressure in the Western Conference Final after dropping the first two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5118],"tags":[1772,1116,192,144,5,1259,1041,1117,145,161,38,5280,151,4,1351,39,3966,162],"class_list":["post-581945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-wild","tag-brent-burns","tag-cale-makar","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-hockey","tag-ivan-barbashev","tag-jack-eichel","tag-jared-bednar","tag-los-angeles-kings","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-minnesotawild","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-nhl","tag-ross-colton","tag-vegas-golden-knights","tag-western-conference-final","tag-wild"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116624468420513035","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581945","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=581945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}