Makar's brilliance not enough to salvage a win in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS – It’s hard to be too upset when you finish a five-game road trip 3-2, but when the last loss comes against one the NHL’s worst teams, it stings a little.

Of course, as bad as the Minnesota Wild have been on the road this year, they’ve been excellent at home. That continued tonight as they eeked out a 3-2 win over the Avalanche on the back of a strange goal in the third period that broke a tied game and just barely pushed the Wild over the edge.

The story for Colorado tonight, however, was once again Cale Makar.

The spectacular (spectacular, no words in the vernacular can describe this great player) rookie put on a dazzling display once again as he scored both of Colorado’s goals and dragged them into relevance in a game they should’ve been getting blown out in.

A big reason the Avs were in a position to come from just a 2-0 deficit was Philipp Grubauer, who again looked stout behind a defense that did not.

“He’s a rock,” Makar said. “Anytime he can make a big save for us, it’s giving us confidence. Goalie is the backbone of every single team in the league and when you have a guy that’s shutting the door back there, it makes us feel good and gives us a bigger boost upfront.”

With Grubauer keeping the Avs in it, Makar took over late in the second period. He scored his first goal of the night and sixth of the season just moments after hitting the post. Joonas Donskoi provided a jumping screen on the play that prevented Wild goaltender Alex Stalock from effectively tracking Makar’s shot.

“We just had unreal traffic in the net front,” Makar said. “I saw the side that was open and just shot it there. [Donskoi] got out of the way and ended up tipping it, I think. That’s why we scored that one.”

While Donskoi was never given credit for the goal, Makar was and he added to his total just minutes later.

Off a faceoff win by Nazem Kadri, the Avs swung the puck around to Makar, who jumped into the play once he got the puck and then left two Wild players swimming on the ice as he deked them off their feet and beat Stalock glove-side to tie the game.

I tried asking him about that goal but he wasn’t interested in talking about it, choosing instead to focus on his first goal only. The two-goal game pushed him to a tie in the rookie goal-scoring race with seven on the year and pushed his season total to 25, eight more than the second-best rookie (Quinn Hughes).

But Makar wasn’t interested in taking credit following the game.

“I don’t think any of it is me,” Makar said. “I think it’s a lot of the guys in the room here. Everyone feels confident in each other so on any given night anybody can go off. You’re seeing it from [Burakovsky] and [MacKinnon].”

Really? NONE of is Makar?

“No,” Makar reiterated. “Not yet.”

Oh. Not yet. Okay then.

The last game of a long road trip (nine days, five cities across three timezones) is always a challenge but given Colorado’s injury woes to boot, it made for an uphill battle from the get-go tonight.

“We definitely had some guys that did not look like they had a lot of legs or looked tired,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “Remember, we’re taxing some guys, playing them above what they play and it looks like it’s taking its toll a bit.”

The Avs return home after completing their five-game road trip as they welcome in the suddenly rejuvenated Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.

GAME TAKEAWAYS

• Going to start with the linesmen here. An odd place, sure, but a few small observations. So much of their job is judgment calls at high speeds that it’s easy to sympathize when they get one wrong but they called icing twice in this game (once against each team) with a guy from the offending team leading the footrace to the puck. Clearly, too! Then in the third period, they called off an icing against Minnesota because Nikita Zadorov wasn’t nine feet tall. It’s a tough job but come on.
• Also, that was totally tripping on Makar near the end there. Bad job.
• Colorado’s second PP unit currently consists of Tynan (0 NHL points), Nichushkin (0 goals in 91 straight games), Kamenev (3 career goals), Girard (9 career goals), and Compher (34 career goals). That is a low-octane unit. The first unit has its problems right now but I’m not sure playing the second unit at all is even worth it.
• Whatever is going on with Sam Girard and the puck has got to stop. For all of Sam’s issues getting offense going as he develops, he has consistently been Colorado’s top puck-moving defenseman since he showed up. His struggles have been so striking because of his consistency in the last two seasons and suddenly he’s incapable of doing the thing he’s done at the highest level. It’s baffling and I’m just going to assume he needs to work through this.
• The Avs have gotten away with half their forward corps being missing but tonight they simply didn’t have the legs they needed and it’s obvious it’s catching up to them. You can only get away with the savior routine for so long. That said, sneaky suspicion says Mikko Rantanen only misses one more game.
• I don’t have any elaborate thoughts on it but just going to say I loved J.T. Compher’s game tonight. He deserved better than the post he hit late in the third period.
• I don’t know what’s going to happen with the Wild this year but boy would Jason Zucker look good in a Colorado uniform. A perfect fit for what they need. I’m just saying.