Keeler: Dude, where’s Cale Makar? Avalanche needs more from star defenseman to beat Dallas Divers

Dude where s Makar They need you Cale The Dallas Divers can spot a sucker in pinstripes from a mile away Five games in it s looking like a split decision and the Avalanche is trailing on the scorecards of all three judges Not that it s been a fair fight mind you This Stars roster is full of divers and divas Jamie Benn turned in another Oscar-worthy tumble during the Avalanche s - loss in Championship Maybe he got tired of all the love Mason Marchment has been getting from the Academy lately Couple of those are preseason calls Avs captain Gabe Landeskog whose amazing comeback story is a loss away from heading home for the summer described reporters Regardless we ve got to fight through it and keep playing Meanwhile can anyone remember a Stanley Cup series where Cale Makar has ever felt more invisible When Colorado coach Jared Bednar decreed that his Avs had too various passengers back in January no one could ve pegged Cale as a candidate to flail Or that the Conn Smythe Trophy winner the best defenseman of his generation would look like one of the guys just along for the ride Yet here we are And when it comes to Denver s Great something s off Something s wrong The Avs are down - in this best-of-seven opening round series and Makar s collected two points and no goals through five games That s the lowest postseason point total he s ever managed in a series in which the speedy D-man made at least four appearances The Calgary native collected three points over four games in a first-round sweep of the Blues to open the postseason and three again in the series against St Louis in the Avs six-game achievement in Which was also the last time he was held without a goal through his first five starts in a postseason tussle Makar had a little bit of a rough start to the series but he was absolutely outstanding at home Bednar communicated reporters late Monday So yeah we ve had a limited guys that struggled in American Airlines Center and played good at home That s a bright spot going back to our building Competition was Makar s th career playoff event without a point The Avs are - in those games Flip side They re - when he notches at least one Contest at Ball Arena Thursday night is do-or-die Makar s appeared in postseason elimination games already over a young career He s only gone without a point in three of those and the Avs lost all three Although to be fair to Cale the Avs suddenly have a lot of passengers on Lord Stanley s Struggle Bus Nathan MacKinnon five goals and Logan O Connor two have accounted for almost half of the association s total goal count while former or current top fixtures Martin Necas Brock Nelson and Jonathan Drouin have yet to find the back of the net through five appearances You ve heard me say it all along Bednar continued It s going to come down to playing good teams that finish in similar spots in the standings so you ve got to go play your best hockey for two weeks in order to win right If you ve got good players having bad nights it s not your best hockey If you re firing on all cylinders the other night like Contest and Encounter things start to look a lot better The Avs have been too maddeningly inconsistent this series to count on anything though And more troubling there ve been times when those old ugly signs of past Colorado playoff letdowns start rearing their ugly heads Whether it s Nikola Jokic or MacKinnon it s not the best sign when a league MVP loses their cool on the bench For Joker that was in San Francisco days before Michael Malone got fired For Mighty MacK it was with left in the second period Monday night with his Avs down - and staggering to get out of Texas in one piece Cameras caught MacKinnon stressing something to fellow center Charlie Coyle as they left the ice a point that Coyle seemed to refute based on his body language Whatever was commented something clicked as an Artturi Lehknonen tip and a gorgeous MacKinnon snapshot trimmed the Dallas lead to - Alas that momentum didn t last long the Divers tacked on two goals over to wrest momentum away for the night There were selected plays where almost uncharacteristic mistakes here and there but stuff s going to happen Landeskog stated It was more certain of the routes we took and gave up particular odd man rushes more than usual just a bit uncharacteristic Related Articles Keeler Shedeur Sanders phone prank should lead to fines suspensions for Atlanta Falcons coach Renck vs Keeler Who will emerge as sleeper pick of Broncos NFL draft class Keeler Avalanche s Logan O Connor sent Dallas Stars a message for Event We re not going to back down Keeler Hello Cleveland Why CU Buffs star Shedeur Sanders can fly where Johnny Manziel crashed Grading The Week Gabe Landeskog s comeback renewed our faith in humanity Our faith in the Avs We ll see Speaking of uncharacteristic per HockeyStatCards com Makar posted a GameScore a hockey equivalent of baseball s Wins Above Replacement metric on Monday night of minus- That was the lowest grade for any Avs skater Going into Encounter the Albertan ranked th among Avs players in Average GameScore through Games - And that trailed fellow D-men Devon Toews Sam Malinski and Samuel Girard Yeah you re reliably concerned at this time of year Bednar declared You can t have guys having bad nights this time of the year You can t have your stars disappear Especially when Peter DeBoer s Staggering Stars are smelling blood Want more Avalanche news Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis