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Cale Makar Colorado Avalanche

Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar provided an injury update on defenseman Cale Makar following the team’s loss in Game 2.

The Avalanche entered the NHL Western Conference Finals as the betting favorite to beat the Vegas Golden Knights and advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. But after dropping Game 1 with a 4-2 score, they are now down 2-0 in the best-of-seven series after the team lost 3-1 in Game 2 on Friday night. For an Avs team that won the Presidents’ Trophy during the regular season, and which had been utterly dominant through the first two rounds of the playoffs, it’s been shocking to see them lose the first two games of the series.

Clearly, the loss of Makar — the team’s best defenseman who has missed the first two games of the series with an upper-body injury — has hurt the Avs. But there is no guarantee that he even plays in Game 3, which could spell disaster for the Avalanche.

Jared Bednar Provides Injury Update on Cale Makar

Speaking to the media following the team’s loss in Game 2, Bednar said that while Makar is doing everything he can to return to the lineup, he doesn’t have an official return date for his stud d-man. In a peculiar comment that drew eyebrows from the media, Bednar said it would be up to Makar to decide when he was ready to come back.

“It’s gonna be Cale’s decision on if he’s coming back. He’s doing all the work. I don’t make that decision for him,” Bednar said.

Like all injuries during the playoffs, the Avalanche has not released the exact nature of Makar’s injury, other than referring to it as an upper-body injury. So, depending on what exactly Makar is dealing with, that could be the reason why there is no set return date for his comeback to the Avs’ lineup. But the team is surely hoping to have him back for Game 3 in Vegas, as the Avs travel on the road in what is essentially a must-win game, as going down 3-0 in the series would be extremely difficult to come back from.

Avalanche Potentially Facing Presidents’ Trophy Curse

During the regular season, Colorado won the Presidents’ Trophy as the team with the most points. They went 55-16-11 for 121 points this season, and that’s why they were the obvious favorites to win the Stanley Cup.

But when you look at the history of Presidents’ Trophy winners, very few of them actually win the Stanley Cup.

Dating back to 1985-86, when the trophy was first awarded, only eight of the 39 (20.5%) teams that finished with the best regular-season record won the Stanley Cup the same year. The last team to accomplish this feat was in 2013, when the Chicago Blackhawks won it all. So just because the Avs were the best team during the regular season doesn’t mean that they are going to win the Stanley Cup. In fact, history suggests that they only have a 1-in-5 chance of doing so.

But this Avs team is special. It’s talented, deep, and well-coached, and if the club can get Makar back, they’ll have a great chance of rebounding to tie up the series with Vegas and get past them to buck the Presidents’ Trophy curse and capture the fourth Stanley Cup in franchise history.