Avalanche Face Must-Win Game Without Cale Makar

Cale Makar sat out practice Monday. No update. No timeline.

Just silence from the Avalanche, which tells you everything you need to know.

Colorado opens the Western Conference Final against Vegas on Tuesday night at Ball Arena. And their best player is not practicing between games.

He's been playing through something for weeks, barely on the ice between playoff starts. Now he's out for the series opener against a team built to exploit exactly this kind of opening.

The Avalanche finished the regular season with 121 points and outscored opponents by 101 goals.

Vegas is the Pacific Division champion who just disposed of Utah and Anaheim in back-to-back six-game wins. These are not the same caliber of opponent Colorado faced in rounds one and two.

Here's the thing: the Avalanche dressed eight defensemen against Minnesota. Eight. They've been cycling AHL call-ups like Jack Ahcan and Nick Blankenburg all postseason because of injuries to Manson and Malinski. That depth was supposed to be a luxury. Now it's the entire plan.

Makar averages 24:59 a night. He runs Colorado's top power play. He drives transition better than almost anyone in the league. His underlying numbers this postseason: 4 goals, 22 shots on goal, 18 blocked shots in 9 games. That's not just volume.

That's a workload that doesn't just get handed to the next guy.

But wait: enter Jack Ahcan. Five-foot-eight, left-shot, 11 NHL games this season, zero goals. He had 50 points in 60 AHL games and was second among league defensemen in scoring.

He's small, he's untested. And he is about to play meaningful minutes against a John Tortorella-coached team in the Western Conference Final.

The Avalanche are betting that eight-deep blue line can absorb the Makar hit the same way it absorbed losing Manson for three games against Minnesota.

It worked then. But Minnesota without Brodin and Eriksson Ek is a completely different animal than Vegas with a full lineup and a coach who has had Bednar's number in prior playoff matchups.

Tortorella and Bednar have history. The chess match between those two behind the bench is going to matter. Without Makar running the show, Colorado loses its strategic flexibility.

Bednar can't just plug in a replacement and expect the system to hum.

The real kicker: Tampa Bay lost Victor Hedman for part of the 2021 first round and survived on depth.

Colorado won the Cup that year with Makar leading the charge. The comparison is imperfect, but the lesson is the same. Depth wins when stars can't go. Colorado is about to find out if its depth is deep enough.

So what to watch tonight: can the Avalanche survive 60 minutes without their quarterback? Toews will eat 25-plus minutes. The question is whether anyone else steps up or whether Vegas smells blood and goes for the jugular early.

Game 1 starts at 8 p.m.

ET at Ball Arena. Colorado has home ice for the first two games. They might need it.

The hook is simple: the Avalanche are 121-point team facing a championship-caliber test without their best player. Nothing about this series is guaranteed now.

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Sources: - Cale Makar misses Avalanche practice, unclear for Game 1 of West Final - Avalanche recall Jack Ahcan - Avalanche vs. Golden Knights series preview