{"id":631120,"date":"2026-07-26T02:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T02:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/631120\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T02:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T02:19:11","slug":"avs-defenseman-cale-makar-sidelined-for-game-2-of-west-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/631120\/","title":{"rendered":"Avs defenseman Cale Makar sidelined for Game 2 of West final"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER (AP) \u2014 The Colorado Avalanche will be without standout defenseman<\/a> Cale Makar for Game 2 of the Western Conference Final on Friday night because of an upper-body injury.<\/p>\n

Makar, who also sat out Game 1, went through different skating and shooting drills Friday morning ahead of the game against Vegas before coach Jared Bednar<\/a> ruled him out. The Golden Knights lead the series 1-0 after a 4-2 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hurts when you don\u2019t have Makar, but every team is going through (injuries),\u201d Bednar said, pointing out that Vegas has been missing captain Mark Stone. \u201cOur goal is to be the best version of ourselves we can be tonight, and that\u2019s without Cale, and so be it. I still think we\u2019re capable of winning the hockey game if we\u2019re better than we were the other night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Makar appeared to be banged up in Game 5 last week as the Avalanche closed out their second-round series with Minnesota. He left the ice holding his right arm but later returned. He also briefly departed Game 1 after taking<\/a> a hit along the boards, with his right leg flying into the air before he fell to the ice.<\/p>\n

Bednar declined to say who would fill in for Makar. It could be Jack Ahcan again or possibly Nick Blankenburg, who was acquired from Nashville in March. Alex Gagne also remains a possibility.<\/p>\n

Makar has four goals and an assist while averaging nearly 25 minutes of ice time through the opening two rounds. The Norris Trophy finalist also factors heavily into the Avalanche\u2019s special teams.<\/p>\n

Any mental aspects to not having Makar on the ice for a crucial game?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think when you\u2019re playing you can think about it. I think that\u2019s a hindrance,\u201d Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson said. \u201cGoing into it, obviously, you hope he\u2019s playing. I don\u2019t think anybody can ever stand up here and say, \u2018Oh, I hope he\u2019s not playing.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, he\u2019s a generational player. I don\u2019t think you want to think about it. I think you\u2019ve just got to keep playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER (AP) \u2014 The Colorado Avalanche will be without standout defenseman Cale Makar for Game 2 of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[28226,911,193,1116,1281,192,144,5277,5,4015,1117,1544,1040,2409,13257,4,292,19340,1274,43,14,104],"class_list":["post-631120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-colorado-avalanche","tag-alex-gagne","tag-athlete-injuries","tag-avalanche","tag-cale-makar","tag-co-state-wire","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-coloradoavalanche","tag-hockey","tag-jack-ahcan","tag-jared-bednar","tag-josh-manson","tag-mark-stone","tag-nashville","tag-nevada","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-hockey","tag-nick-blankenburg","tag-nv-state-wire","tag-sports","tag-stanley-cup","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116983887534671620","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631120","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=631120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}