Colorado Avalanche hit with horrible news before Game 1 against the Vegas Golden Knights
Sam Malinski just put Jared Bednar in a brutal spot by saying out loud what Colorado likely wanted kept quiet about Cale Makar.
In one answer, Malinski turned a guarded playoff injury situation into a public one.
And if Makar misses Game 1 against Vegas, that is the worst-case version of the story for the Avalanche.
The issue is not that Malinski respected Makar's importance. Everybody in that room knows it.
The issue is that he gave Vegas a clean read on Colorado's lineup before puck drop.
That matters in the playoffs.
Coaches guard lineup news for a reason, especially when the missing player drives breakouts, minutes, and the entire look of the blue line.
Malinski's words also landed hard because they sounded final. Saying «you can't replace him» is one thing.
Saying the team hopes it can still get it done without him is the part that gave the whole thing away.
And now Bednar has to manage the fallout on top of the matchup.
Colorado finished the season at 55-16-11 with a 99 goal differential, so this is a team built to carry pressure, but Makar changes everything.
Malinski may have said what Colorado did not want said
The Avalanche have gone 8-1 in the playoffs, which only makes this feel bigger.
A club rolling like that does not want a Game 1 headline centered on who is not available.
Vegas now gets extra time to sort through its forecheck looks, its matchups, and its power-play entry pressure against a Colorado back end that could be missing its most dynamic puck mover.
Vegas finished 39-26-17, so this is not some soft opponent getting surprise news late.
Bednar also loses some flexibility with the media.
If he planned to keep Makar's status murky until warmup, that edge may be gone now because one teammate answered too honestly.
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That is why the quote feels so jarring. It was candid, maybe even refreshingly candid, but playoff hockey is built on saying less, not more, when the stakes jump.
Malinski probably did not mean to hand Vegas anything.
Still, intent does not change the result when the information is this sensitive and the player involved is Cale Makar.
If Makar sits, the Avalanche lose a driver. If he somehow plays, Colorado still has to deal with the noise created by a quote that never needed to reach this point.
Either way, this was a bad leak at the worst time.
And on a night this big, that becomes part of the story before Game 1 even starts.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 18, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Zachary Bolduc | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Phillip Danault | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Greenway | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Beck Malenstyn | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ryan McLeod | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Owen Power | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nick Suzuki | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Alexandre Texier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zach Benson | - | - | - | |
| Bowen Byram | - | - | - | |
| Cole Caufield | - | - | - | |
| Kirby Dach | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Demidov | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||