Avalanche not – Cale Makar missed practice Tuesday ahead of the Colorado Avalanche’s Western Conference Final against the Vegas Golden Knights, but Jared Bednar and the rest of the group sounded determined to treat the series like the process—not a reward. Gabriel Landeskog a
DENVER — The question landed the way it always does in this building: straight, specific, and not looking for a soft answer.
Jared Bednar was asked if he was concerned about Cale Makar’s playing status, after the Colorado Avalanche star defender missed practice Tuesday.
“No, not yet,” the coach said on the eve of the club’s Western Conference Final against Vegas.
The calm of his response was familiar, but the issue behind it wasn’t. Makar would appear to be dealing with an upper-body ailment suffered—or made worse—by a reverse hit from Mats Zuccarello during the Game 5 comeback clincher against Minnesota.
The Avalanche have skated three times since ousting the Wild last Wednesday. Makar has yet to be seen.
Still, the message coming out of the room was consistent: this is a job that demands focus, not comfort.
Gabriel Landeskog—still described as the heartbeat of the room even after missing nearly two full seasons—put it bluntly when asked about Wednesday’s series opener here at Ball Arena.
“Yeah, I mean, listen, it’s just that it’s a part of the process,” Landeskog said.
“We’ve got bigger goals and dreams than this.”
Colorado enters the Western Conference Final after going 8-1 in these playoffs, outscoring Los Angeles and Minnesota by 12. But the tone around the group is not built on celebration. Even with the Presidents’ Trophies. the 2022 Stanley Cup. star power. analytics dominance. and highlight-reel nights behind them. this is only their second trip to the third round since drafting Nathan MacKinnon in 2013.
A decade of excellence has brought expectations. It hasn’t erased the feeling of unfinished business.
That sense of urgency connects to how the story has shifted for them in recent springs. For seven of their last nine playoffs, the narrative has turned on pain from first or second-round exits. This team has been great—when it matters most, it hasn’t been great enough.
MacKinnon, who has scored in six straight games, echoed that mindset when he was asked about the championship pedigree on both sides.
“Yeah, it’s a lot,” MacKinnon said.
“I mean, I think they’ve (won) it recently (2023), just the year after us (2022), so you know, they have a lot of guys who know what it takes. I just can’t see this being a short series. It’s going to be tough, and ready for a seven-game here.”
His confidence wasn’t the kind that comes from looking past an opponent. It came from recognizing what tends to separate the teams that finish from the teams that fall short.
“It doesn’t feel like a grind at all,” he said, even as he still showed fading signs of two black eyes.
“I think we’re all having a lot of fun, and we’ve been lucky enough to have a couple breaks in between series, so the grind is more like January, February. The last game was probably the most fun we’ve all had playing hockey. This is what we get up for, so I think everyone’s feeling good right now.”
Makar is the clear exception to the “feeling good” part of that equation. With or without him to open the series, the Avalanche are leaning on a roster that GM Chris MacFarland has built to survive the moments that break other teams.
They’ve been strong even in the way they’ve played—balanced, adaptable, and relentless. Colorado is 15-4-1 in its last 20 games, scoring 73 and allowing 47. They’ve won track meets, they’ve won grinders, they’ve won comeback games, and they’ve won suffocating defensive battles.
“With our group now, I think we can win in different ways,” MacFarland said.
“We have high-skilled guys, we can score goals. I think we like to dictate play for sure. like everybody does. but you’ve seen the different ways that we’ve been fortunate enough to win in the first two rounds. and throughout the season. I know the one thing I don’t think we got enough credit for is how well we’re prepared game in. game out. and how we defend. Defending is a skill. but it’s also guts and determination. and to do the hard things day in. day out. it’s a mindset that I think starts with our leadership group. and the guy to my left.”.
That identity shift—fast and skilled, yes, but stubborn and layered when it tightens—has made this Avalanche group feel different. They’re comfortable in the battle.
Vegas is built to test that comfort.
John Tortorella’s Golden Knights are the foil Colorado is facing: heavy. structured. opportunistic. and anchored by a veteran core of Cup winners led by Jack Eichel. Like the Avalanche, Vegas is also 15-4-1 in its last 20, and their momentum isn’t an accident. They wrapped up the regular season with a late 7-0-1 jolt after Tortorella was hired.
This is a team that erased a three-goal deficit in Minnesota to close out a series. It took two days off after advancing, practised twice on the weekend, and still looks fresh.
Colorado has learned what happens when you take anything for granted.
Last year’s first-round exit against Dallas wasn’t treated like a one-off. It was absorbed.
“That type of failure makes you realize how painful it can be,” Logan O’Connor said, referring to the late comeback authored by former Av Mikko Rantanen that sunk Colorado in Game 7.
“You don’t want that feeling again.”
Colorado Avalanche Cale Makar Jared Bednar Gabriel Landeskog Nathan MacKinnon Vegas Golden Knights Jack Eichel John Tortorella Western Conference Final Ball Arena playoffs