Cale Makar scare erupts after Marcus Foligno sends him crashing into the glass
Cale Makar gave Jared Bednar a real scare Monday after Marcus Foligno drilled him early in Colorado’s Game 1 against Minnesota.
It happened before the opening period was 5 minutes old, and the whole sequence changed the temperature in the building right away.
Foligno tracked Makar down near the end boards and drove through the body, with the contact sending the Avalanche star awkwardly up and into the glass.
Makar got back to the bench, but he didn’t stay there long.
A few moments later, he headed down the tunnel and left Colorado dealing with the one thing it couldn’t afford.
That’s the story here. This wasn’t just a heavy playoff hit.
This was a direct scare involving Colorado’s No. 1 defenseman and the engine of its blue line.
Bednar’s group can survive a rough shift or a bad bounce.
Losing Makar for any stretch is a different conversation entirely, especially this early in a second-round series.
-
Colorado’s entire look changes without Cale Makar
Makar finished the regular season with 20 goals and 79 points in 77 games.
He also posted a +34 rating, which tells you how much ice Colorado tilts when he’s out there.
The Avalanche rolled through the first round with a 4-game sweep over Los Angeles, and Makar chipped in 2 goals with a +4 rating in that series.
That’s why the reaction on Colorado’s bench mattered.
When a player like Makar disappears down the hallway in a playoff opener, every matchup and every special-teams look starts to feel different.
It also puts more weight on the rest of the defensive group.
Minutes get shuffled, puck movement slows down, and breakouts get a lot less clean when your top option is suddenly gone.
Colorado entered the playoffs after a 55-16-11 regular season, good for 121 points.
Teams with that kind of ceiling are built around stars finishing shifts, not leaving in the first period.
The good news for the Avalanche is that Makar later returned to the bench, which softened the panic a bit and gave Colorado at least some hope that the damage wasn’t long-term.
But the message from Game 1 was already clear.
Minnesota made sure Colorado felt every inch of the ice, and the Foligno hit put Makar’s status at the center of the series right away.
|
YESTERDAY
MAY 3, 2026
| ||||
| 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 | ||||