Cameras capture the bench moment that has Avalanche fans worried about Cale Makar
Cale Makar gave Jared Bednar a brutal bench-side warning sign, and the Avalanche suddenly have a real problem on their blue line.
The concern wasn’t subtle. A camera caught Makar applying numbing cream to his left hip between shifts, which is the kind of bench routine players usually hide when they’re trying to get through pain.
That doesn’t confirm a diagnosis.
But it does confirm this much: something is bothering one of Colorado’s most important players badly enough that he needed treatment during the game.
For Bednar, that’s where the story turns.
When a top-pair defenceman is managing discomfort shift by shift, the issue stops being about one sequence and starts being about workload, mobility, and whether the bench can trust the next push.
The clip made that impossible to ignore.
Makar is usually all edge work, pivots, and clean exits off the blue line.
If the hip is limiting any part of that, Colorado’s entire rhythm changes.
You could see him leaning into the treatment, then getting back up to keep going.
That’s a tough look for a player who normally drives the pace without showing much strain at all.
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Colorado can’t shrug this off as background noise.
The bench scene changes the conversation for the Colorado Avalanche after game one
The worst part for Colorado isn’t just pain management. It’s the timing.
Once a player is reaching for numbing cream between shifts, the question becomes whether rest is coming next.
That puts pressure on Bednar’s next decision.
Does he keep leaning on Makar because the stakes are high, or does he pull back and protect the bigger picture before the problem gets worse?
Colorado also has team context that raises the urgency.
The Avalanche finished with 302 goals and a +99 differential, numbers built on control, speed, and blue-line support. Makar is central to all of that.
If his skating is even slightly compromised, breakouts get slower, gaps get harder to close, and the bench starts asking other defencemen to cover minutes they weren’t built to handle.
That’s why this clip landed so hard. Fans weren’t reacting to gossip.
They were reacting to a visible in-game sign that one of the NHL’s top defencemen may be playing through something serious.
Until Colorado says more, that bench moment is the clearest evidence available.
And for the Avalanche, it’s enough to make the fear around Cale Makar’s hip feel very real.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 3, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Devon Toews | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Cale Makar | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Quinn Hughes | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Nathan MacKinnon | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Martin Necas | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Artturi Lehkonen | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sam Malinski | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Nick Blankenburg | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jack Drury | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marcus Foligno | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ryan Hartman | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Dominic James | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marcus Johansson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nazem Kadri | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nick Suzuki | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladimir Tarasenko | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mats Zuccarello | 1 | - | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||