Despite their continued struggles, Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar remains calm and focuses on the upcoming game.

The Avalanche suffered consecutive losses in the Western Conference Finals against the Vegas Golden Knights, who have raced to a 2-0 series lead.

The Avalanche lost 4-2 on Wednesday, followed by a 3-1 defeat on Friday. Despite a host of criticism aimed at the team's display, Bednar is optimistic about Saturday and believes his players must perform well to bounce back.

"You deal with that all playoffs long, but we're going to have to do a good job of that going into Game 3 because, listen," he stated, as per Sportsnet. "You're running into adversity, and you know you're going to lose some games in the playoffs."

The Avalanche now faces the daunting task of winning away at Las Vegas. Bednar remained candid about the difficulty of turning it around and clinching the upcoming games at T-Mobile Arena.

"We're not going to try to win four games the next night in Vegas," he said. "We're going to try to win one game, right? It can sound cliché—it is what it is—but that's how we approach it."

Colorado must regroup and hope to recover some of its best players. Notably, center Nathan MacKinnon has yet to score in this series, despite having a standout postseason.

Meanwhile, the team missed its defensive talisman Cale Makar, who's recovering from an upper-body injury. Forward Martin Necas has yet to translate his 100-point regular-season haul to playoff heroics.

The Avalanche's form has been a far cry from previous rounds. Leading up to Game 1, they had swept the Kings and beat the Minnesota Wild 4-1 in the postseason.

They had arrived as favorites for the finals, but the script was flipped in the first two games.

Jared Bednar Provides an Update on Cale Makar

Colorado Avalanche star defenseman Cale Makar remained out of the game on Friday. His absence was clearly felt, as the team kept faltering in defense and succumbed to errors.

Makar has also been pivotal to Colorado's scoring numbers, recording five points in nine playoff games.

He was even on the ice for an optional skate before Game 2, but went on to stay on the sidelines.

Following Friday's defeat, Bednar provided an update on Makar and said that it is his decision on when he wants to return to the game.

“It’s going to be Cale’s decision on if he’s coming back. He’s doing all the work." Bednar said, as per Vic Lombardi on X. "I don’t make that decision for him.”

Nonetheless, Colorado players must galvanize themselves ahead of Game 3 on May 24. They must defy history to save their season, as no team in the modern conference era has ever recovered after going 0-2 down at home in the playoffs.

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Written by

Ankita Yadav

Edited by

Sijo Paul