The Colorado Avalanche will get arguably the best defenseman in the game of hockey back in the lineup for Game 1 of their first-round series against the Seattle Kraken after Cale Makar confirmed he would be healthy for Tuesday's tilt.
“Yeah, I'll be good to go tomorrow,” Makar said after participating in a full practice Monday at Ball Arena in Colorado.
It's an enormous boost for the Avs, who have been missing their best D-man for long stretches of the season due to various ailments.
He most recently missed the last seven regular-season games with a lower-body injury, after missing nine games in a 10-game stretch from Feb. 9-Mar. 1 with a concussion and four games from Jan. 18-24 with an upper-body injury, according to Nicholas J. Cotsonika of NHL.com.
Although the 24-year-old says he's as close to 100 percent as he can be right now, he understands the physical and mental grind of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“Sometimes you can't catch a break,” Avalanche superstar Cale Makar explained, per Cotsonika. “This year was one of those years. I'll play an 82-game season at some point, I hope. Just one thing after another, just nagging, and this was one of those things that, like, especially my skating stride wasn't up to par. So, I guess, it's just going to be managing and making sure I stay on top of it.”
It's been a tough season for Makar, but he won the Norris Trophy as the NHL's best defenseman and the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP in 2021-22, leading the Avs to their first title since 2001.
If he can return to form for the Avs in 2023, the team will have a great chance to come out of the Western Conference and compete for back-to-back Stanley Cup rings.
“He's the best defenseman in the league, I think, and one of the best players in the league overall,” Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen told NHL.com. “Dominant player, so I'm very excited that he was practicing normally today and hopefully he felt good. It's a big, big addition, obviously. You can't replace Cale Makar. That's for sure.”
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