BUFFALO — The Colorado Avalanche is going to limp home from this three-game road trip with back-to-back shutout losses, but a fortunate diagnosis after a scary situation could be significant.
Cale Makar left the game near the end of the second period Sunday after crashing awkwardly into the end boards, but he was able to return and play in the third, and said he should be fine moving forward following a 4-0 defeat against the Buffalo Sabres.
“I don’t really remember (what happened), to be honest with you,” Makar said of the incident. “I think a lot of it’s on me, going back slow, no effort. I don’t know if it was my right leg, I think I tried to take a stride and I don’t know if I caught myself or what happened. The next thing I knew, I was sliding into the boards.
The Avs were on a power play when Makar retreated to his own end to retrieve the puck. Kyle Okposo followed close behind him, and put his forearm on Makar’s back before he reached the goal line. Makar fell and his right leg buckled awkwardly as he hit the end boards.
While Makar attempted to take some responsibility for the play after the game, his teammates and his coach did not like how the play unfolded.
“It’s a penalty in my books,” defenseman Devon Toews told Altitude TV. “You learn that play in Bantam (hockey), how to get on the hips of a guy to get him off balance. You’re taught to do that when a guy is up against the boards to get him off balance and pin him.
“When you do it six feet away from the boards at speed, it gets dangerous. That’s a dangerous play. This league is trying to protect stars, trying to protect the players. That’s a play that is dangerous, in my opinion, and something that needs to be addressed.”
Ross Colton immediately went after Okposo when play was whistled dead, and it appeared that Josh Manson tried to go speak with Okposo after the game concluded.
“Well, I didn’t love (the hit),” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “You see one of those every once in a while, and it’s in a bad spot. Both guys are skating toward the end boards. To me, he gets him on the hips (away from) the goal line.
“I just don’t think you can hit him there. I don’t love it. I think it was dangerous.”
Okposo told The Buffalo News that he spoke with Makar after the game.
“I obviously wasn’t trying to push him there,” Okposo said, according to The Buffalo News. “I knew he was tired, so I was trying to close the gap and once he went, I was honestly just trying to go around him. Then, he goes down and it’s like, oh no. You never want to see that.”
It was already a rough afternoon for the Avalanche, but a significant injury for Makar would have made a bad end to this road trip even worse. The Avs dealt with an excessive number of injuries to key players last season but have remained relatively healthy to start the 2023-24 campaign.
Makar came out for warmups late to the start the third period and shook his right leg a few times before going to the bench. He left the bench area multiple times to head down the tunnel toward the locker room during the third and stood instead of sitting after shifts a couple of times, but said afterward that he was just working some things out.
He did take six shifts during the third period and logged 6:37 of ice time — maybe a little less than normal when the Avs are chasing a game, but the outcome felt decided long before the Sabres added an empty-net goal with 3:08 remaining.
Nathan MacKinnon also missed a chunk of the third period because he was assessed a two-minute minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct and an extra 10-minute misconduct for arguing with an official about the Okposo hit on Makar.
“There’s frustration out of our team because that wasn’t called, and (Makar) is obviously a key player for us,” Bednar said. “You get frustrated and have a few things to say. I’d just like the officials to have thicker skin that spot. They may have missed one or decided not to call it, whatever it is, but you’ve got to take a little bit of harsh feedback in that situation without throwing out a 10 (minute misconduct). If it carries on and on, then it’s a different story.”
Very little went right for the Avs in this game after a pretty good start. The power play generated very little despite six opportunities. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 23 saves, including a couple of great ones in the opening several minutes before Buffalo asserted control.
While the Avalanche is 6-2 to start the season, this is the first time the club has been shut out in back-to-back games since Dec. 20 and 22, 2016.
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