A Game 1 loss exposes just how much Cale Makar means to the Avs

For weeks, the Colorado Avalanche have been writing one of the more-compelling postseason stories in recent memory. A relentless team, capable of erasing deficits and producing iconic moments.

But on Wednesday night, in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, a different storyline emerged — one that has nothing to do with goaltending or grit. Instead, it has everything to do with the empty space on the blue line where Cale Makar usually stands.

The Avalanche fell 4-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights. The loss landed with the kind of weight that demanded honest reflection.

On a Thursday edition of “Stokley and Evans, with Mark Schlereth” on 104.3 The Fan, Mike Evans wasn’t interested in spinning the result. The reality, in his view, is straightforward and uncomfortable.

“You’re trying to win a championship; you gotta have your best players,” Evans said. “You can only next-man-up it so much before the next man up isn’t good enough.”

The phrase “next man up” has become one of sports’ most-overused clichés. And Evans was effectively calling it out for what it is — a comforting line that holds up against ordinary absences and collapses under the weight of irreplaceable ones. There is no version of “next man up” that replicates what Cale Makar brings to a hockey rink.

Evans laid out the principle with a sharpness that left little room for debate.

“Coaching matters, players matter more,” he added. “Never forget that equation.”

It’s a foundational truth that applies across every sport. Systems, schemes and adjustments only carry a team so far. Talent decides games — particularly in the postseason, particularly against teams as well-coached and well-constructed as the Vegas Golden Knights.

And the talent the Avalanche are currently missing is not ordinary talent.

“When you’re down, arguably, the best defenseman to come along in the last 30 to 40 years, it’s a huge, huge loss that just can’t be glossed over,” Evans said.

That kind of statement could come across as hyperbole if it were applied to almost anyone else. Applied to Makar, it reads as factual. He’s a Norris Trophy winner whose combination of skating, vision and offensive instinct has redefined what’s possible from the position. Asking the Avalanche to win a Western Conference Finals without him is asking them to fight uphill in every phase of the game.

Evans closed with his bluntest assessment yet.

“If you take him out of the mix, that is a potentially fatal loss,” he said.

It’s not yet a death sentence. Makar’s return remains the variable that could change everything. But Game 1 made one thing painfully clear — the Avalanche need him back, and they need him back soon.

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