Avalanche Locker Room: Makar Critical Of Himself, Bednar Needs More From ‘Some’ Stars

The Colorado Avalanche are getting a lot from Nathan MacKinnon right now, but not a lot from the rest of their stars.

After their loss on Thursday to the Jets, Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar sort of called out his other stars. Cale Makar, on the other hand, didn’t hold back, saying a lot of the struggles on the powerplay were on him.

Watch what Makar had to say, including what he has to say about the injury he dealt with over the last week, and read what Jared Bednar said after the 4-2 loss.

Cale Makar

Makar on Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon:

“He shows everybody what it should be like every single day, every single game, every single practice. Him tonight, it was fun to watch, he was buzzing. We want to help out. I wasn’t one of the guys who helped tonight. Just wasn’t one of my nights.”

Makar on his injury:

“Basically just sprung up. Just wear and tear. It’s sometimes tough on those ice surfaces over in California. Just very soft, and I don’t know if mainly from a result from that, just kind of tweaked something a little bit. Especially this early on in the season, I had to make sure that it’s not going to spiral. Hopefully it kind of continues to get better, but it felt good tonight.”

Bednar on the game from the Avalanche, in general:

“The start of the game, for me, too safe, just too vanilla. I felt like we lacked the intensity and sort of urgency, intensity on the offensive side that we need to create scoring chances, and urgency on the defensive side. It was…okay. I didn’t feel like they were any better in the first period. I felt like we handed them some goals tonight. We didn’t make them earn them, like the first two. We have the turnover at the end of the first period, where we probably can do anything else with it but that, and it’s in the back of the net.”

Bednar on the ugly 5-on-3:

“I have to look back at that, because I was watching the clock, and trying to get the next unit ready to go…but it’s a big moment. We have the powerplay, then to the 5-on-3, and then the powerplay, and it didn’t feel like we generated what we should generate at that point in the game when you’re down one. We have to be better there.”

Bednar on why he moved Rantanen to the top line:

“I liked O’Connor there, actually. I didn’t like the Colton line with Mikko. It just wasn’t going, so we had some limited options in the top six, so I thought I’d try to flip them. You need more than one line going. We had a bunch of guys that I didn’t really love their game. Didn’t impact the game enough throughout our lineup.”

Bednar on if he can pinpoint the late period struggles of the Avalanche:

“It’s pretty obvious tonight. We go back for the puck, we have time, and we make the wrong decision, turn it over. That’s what it is. It’s decision making. Sometimes it’s guys getting caught out there, trying to extend shifts. That was a little bit of a problem for us early in the year.”

Bednar on if he talks to Georgiev about whacking Sam Malinski after the third goal:

“Yeah.”

Bednar on Nathan MacKinnon factoring into seven consecutive goals, and how hard it is to win when relying on one player:

“I still think we need some stars to be better than they were tonight. All of our guys, throughout our lineup. Every team relies on their stars. They’re going to produce more than other teams. If you look at their roster, the guys that did the most damage tonight was their top line. They rely on those guys, you have to. I’m just really happy Nate’s going. That’s two games in a row, and tonight I thought he was outstanding. We got to get more guys going in the same direction. We’re kind of hit and miss throughout our lineup for the last little bit.”

Bednar on Rantanen playing so much, and if he’s trying to work him out of the rut:

“That’s part of it. He’s doing some good things. I still want to see him pace it up a little bit. I know it’s bugging him, so yeah, part of it is, he’s still one of the most dangerous guys we have, and we need him. I know he feels that. My philosophy is going to be to try and work him out of it with his input and help.”