The Colorado Avalanche head into Game 1 against the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup playoffs with a positive injury report.
While everyone’s eyes had been peeled for news on Cale Makar’s status, the star defenseman hit the ice on Wednesday despite concerns over his upper-body injury he suffered recently—when he was visibly sore, favouring his shoulder after a couple of big collisions against the Minnesota Wild.
However, head coach Jared Bednar provided an update on the team’s attendance that every Avs fan is dying to hear.
Bednar was asked if he will have everybody available for Game 1, which is tonight, and Bednar said that the team is hoping so.
Now, in the NHL, teams do not like to give specific answers to injuries. It’s either upper-body or lower-body. Well, that is the case at least until the playoffs are over with. We would potentially hear some updates about specific injuries at a later date. For instance, I honestly wasn’t expecting Gabriel Landeskog to admit that he had surgery on his lower-body injury he sustained in the season, which kept him out a while. (If you know, you know). He also suffered some broken ribs earlier in the year after crashing into a net.
That being said, reading between the lines, “we’re hoping so” is a lot better than “we’ll see.” To some, there might not be that much of a difference between those two answers, but in the world of hockey, those slight differences are pretty big a lot of the time.
It’s going to be an interesting series and probably even a step or two above the Minnesota Wild. As each playoff team gets further into the playoffs, most of the time, the games and contenders get tougher. We’re getting down to the biggest moments of the season and everything is on the line.
Having Cale Makar out there on the ice in Game 1 would be huge. He would help Nathan MacKinnon and Co. take control of each game. We’ll have to wait for official word, though, which will come when both teams take the ice right before puck drop.
UPDATE: Despite Bednar’s confidence level earlier this morning, Cale Makar is OUT for Game 1.
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