Avalanche not taking anything for granted ahead of Western Conference Final

DENVER — Jared Bednar didn’t flinch when asked if he was concerned about the playing status of Cale Makar.

“No, not yet,” said the Colorado Avalanche coach, whose star defender missed practice Tuesday, on the eve of his club’s conference showdown with Vegas.

He delivered the line with the same calm certainty that has defined his tenure — a quiet confidence that mirrors the team he leads into a Western Conference Final that feels overdue.

Because for all the winning the Avalanche have done — the Presidents’ Trophies, the 2022 Stanley Cup, the star power, the analytics dominance, the highlight‑reel nights — this is only their second trip to the third round since drafting Nathan MacKinnon in 2013.

A decade of excellence, and yet, a sense of unfinished business hangs over everything.

And that’s exactly how they want it.

Gabriel Landeskog, the heartbeat of the room even after missing nearly two full seasons, put it plainly:

“Yeah, I mean, listen, it's just that it's a part of the process,” he said of Wednesday’s series opener here at Ball Arena.

“We’ve got bigger goals and dreams than this.”

Despite going 8-1 in these playoffs, while outscoring Los Angeles and Minnesota by 12, the tone around this group is not one of celebration.

It’s a more mature, business-like approach that stems from being elite for years, only to have the narrative shift to the pain of first or second-round exits in seven of their last nine playoffs.

They’ve been great, but when it matters most, they haven’t been great enough.

MacKinnon, who has never been shy about the standard he holds himself and his team to, echoed that sentiment when asked about the championship pedigree on both sides:

“Yeah, it's a lot,” said the man who has scored in six-straight games.

“I mean, I think they've (won) it recently (2023), just the year after us (2022), so you know, they have a lot of guys who know what it takes. I just can't see this being a short series. It's going to be tough, and ready for a seven-game here.”

This is the version of MacKinnon that terrifies opponents — the one who’s not grinding, not exhausted, but energized by the moment.

“It doesn't feel like a grind at all,” he smiled, while still displaying the fading signs of two black eyes.

“I think we're all having a lot of fun, and we've been lucky enough to have a couple breaks in between series, so the grind is more like January, February. The last game was probably the most fun we've all had playing hockey. This is what we get up for, so I think everyone's feeling good right now.”

With the noted exception of Makar, who would appear to be dealing with an upper-body ailment suffered, or made worse, by a reverse hit from Mats Zuccarello in the Game 5 comeback clincher against Minnesota. The team has skated three times since ousting the Wild last Wednesday, and Makar has yet to be seen.

Yet, with the depth GM Chris MacFarland has accrued to a team that has been on the cusp of greatness for years, there’s every reason to believe that with or without Makar to open the series the Avalanche should remain optimistic.

This is the most balanced Avalanche team since 2022, and some are already arguing it may be even deeper than that.

They’re 15‑4‑1 in their last 20 games, scoring 73 and allowing 47. They’ve won track meets, they’ve won grinders, they’ve won comeback games, and they’ve won suffocating defensive battles.

“With our group now, I think we can win in different ways,” said MacFarland, whose top-ranked club shocked many by being the stingiest defensive team in the league with a goalie tandem many saw as unproven.

“We have high-skilled guys, we can score goals. I think we like to dictate play for sure, like everybody does, but you've seen the different ways that we've been fortunate enough to win in the first two rounds, and throughout the season. I know the one thing I don't think we got enough credit for is how well we're prepared game in, game out, and how we defend. Defending is a skill, but it's also guts and determination, and to do the hard things day in, day out, it's a mindset that I think starts with our leadership group, and the guy to my left.”

That’s the identity shift that makes this Avalanche team feel different. They’re not just fast and skilled. They’re stubborn. They’re layered. They’re comfortable in the battle.

John Tortorella’s Golden Knights are the perfect foil. Heavy, structured, opportunistic, and still anchored by a veteran core of Cup winners, led by Jack Eichel. They too are 15-4-1 in their last 20, thanks to a late 7-0-1 jolt to wrap up the regular season after Tortorella was hired.

They’re built to frustrate, to lean, to wear you down.

The Avs feel ready.

This is a team that erased a three‑goal deficit in Minnesota to close out a series. A team that took two days off after advancing, practised twice on the weekend, and still looks fresh. A team that has learned, painfully, what happens when you take anything for granted.

Last year’s first‑round exit against Dallas wasn’t ignored. It was absorbed.

“That type of failure makes you realize how painful it can be,” said Logan O’Connor of the late comeback authored by former Av Mikko Rantanen that sunk Colorado in Game 7.

“You don’t want that feeling again.”