Colorado Avalanche star defenseman Cale Makar shared his reaction after his team was swept from the playoffs by the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Avs lost Game 4 on Tuesday night by a score of 2-1 to get eliminated from the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs despite entering the postseason as the cup favorites after winning the Presidents’ Trophy during the regular season. But the Golden Knights were simply the better team, and they defeated Colorado in a four-game rout.
Cale Makar Reacts After Colorado Gets Swept
Speaking to reporters following the team’s Game 4 loss, Makar shared his thoughts on Colorado getting swept out of the playoffs by Vegas.
“I mean, it’s tough. Obviously, I watched for the first couple (due to injury), and we were right there. A series like this, it’s one chance, one opportunity, and unfortunately, that’s what it was tonight. They just capitalized on the one extra that we gave them, and it’s just tough, obviously. You feel for a lot of these guys in the room, because there’s definitely no lack of effort anywhere, but sometimes you question the bounces that we should be getting, and they just don’t happen. Yeah, it’s tough. There’s a lot of pride that you can’t take away from us,” Makar said.
Cale Makar Was Banged Up During the Playoffs
As Makar alluded to, he missed the first two games of this series with an upper-body injury. The team or player has not revealed what exactly the injury was, but we will likely find out the nature of the injury in the coming days when the Avalanche have their end-of-season media availability.
With Makar banged up, it made it even more difficult for the Avalanche to defeat the Golden Knights, as he is not only the team’s best defenseman, but he’s one of the best defenseman in the entire NHL. So to lose him for the first two games of the series was a tough blow to Colorado, and it made what was a tough series even more difficult to get through.
Due to losing in four games, there will likely be some changes made in Colorado next season. Some believe that Avs head coach Jared Bednar could be on the hot seat, though Golden Knights head coach John Tortorella defended his peer in his post-fight interview after Vegas swept the series. It would be a rash decision to let Bednar go, given it was just four years ago he helped coach this team to a cup, but there are surely going to be changes made as the Avs look for this not to happen again.
The Avalanche were a wagon during the regular season, winning 55 games and having the most points in the league. But none of that matters when you don’t win in the playoffs. They may have dominated the first two rounds of the playoffs, but in the end, they were swept out of the Western Conference Finals, and that’s all that anyone is going to remember about the Avs this year.
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