Cale Makar is headed for a brief stay on the sidelines with an upper-body injury, the Colorado Avalanche confirmed, but the team is not treating it as a crisis for their playoff push. The star defenseman left Monday's win over the Calgary Flames after taking a hit along the boards and never came back for the third period. With the postseason looming, Colorado is choosing caution over risk to make sure Makar is ready when the games really start to matter.
Head coach Jared Bednar told reporters Wednesday that Makar is doing all right but will sit out a short stretch as a precaution, according to Colorado Hockey Now. Bednar framed the decision entirely around the playoffs, saying there is no interest in rushing him back. After Wednesday, the Avalanche still had eight regular-season games left, giving them enough runway to rest their top defenseman without feeling squeezed by the schedule.
How Makar Got Hurt
According to RotoWire, Makar suffered the upper-body injury late in the second period of Monday's game when he absorbed a hit along the boards from Calgary defenseman Adam Klapka. He had already stacked up three assists before the collision and was ruled out for the rest of the night after heading to the locker room. The Avalanche has listed the injury as an upper-body, day-to-day issue, with trainers keeping a close eye on him during practice sessions.
Who Steps In For The Avs
In Makar's absence, Colorado plans to plug Nick Blankenburg into the lineup for Wednesday's game, per Colorado Hockey Now. The blue line shuffle does not end there. The team also announced that Sam Malinski will slide into the role of top power-play quarterback while Makar is out, as reported by The Denver Post. It is an early audition for Malinski to run Colorado's set pieces and prove he can handle an expanded workload in the final tune-up games before the playoffs.
Makar's offensive output helps explain the careful approach. He has 20 goals and 75 points in 73 games this season, according to season totals tracked by RotoWire, production that few defensemen in the league can touch. The Avalanche is not interested in turning a short-term issue into a lingering problem. With decent depth on the right side, Colorado believes it can spread out his minutes without suffering a major drop in overall performance.
Bednar said the team will continue to take a conservative approach and will update Makar's status after morning skates, according to The Denver Post. For now, the expectation is that this is a brief absence, not a postseason-altering blow. In the meantime, the Avalanche will use the extra time to tinker with their special-teams rotation. Fans looking for clarity about Makar's availability for the first round will have to wait for official word from the team as the playoffs draw closer.
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