Colorado Avalanche defenceman Cale Makar controls the puck in the second period of a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.Isaiah J. Downing/Reuters
Like so many other Canadians all over the world, Cale Makar found himself glued to a TV screen for much of the last month, desperately hoping that the Toronto Blue Jays could bring the World Series north of the border once again.
Given the way that team seemingly captured the hearts of the entire country, the Colorado Avalanche defenceman also couldn’t help but look ahead to next February’s Olympics, wondering what it will be like in Canada when National Hockey League players return to the Games for the first time since 2014.
“It was pretty crazy,” he said of the Jays’ run. “Obviously seeing the passion for the Canadian team – the Blue Jays – I can only imagine the passion they’ll have for hockey at the Olympics. To be able to hopefully go there will be pretty special.”
Barring injury, he doesn’t have to worry. Unlike some of the other star blueliners vying for roster spots, Makar has the luxury of knowing that he already has a seat reserved on the plane to Italy next year.
Not that that has led to any easing off in his play through the first month of the season.
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The 27-year-old, who was one of the preliminary half-dozen players selected by Canada to play at the Milan-Cortina Games, is off to a flying start, with 18 points through 14 games, tied for second on the team behind captain Nathan MacKinnon. Their play has translated to the Avalanche surging out of the gate, with Colorado currently first overall in the NHL standing, having just lost once in regulation time so far.
Despite a burgeoning trophy cabinet, which includes a pair of Norris Trophies as the NHL’s best defenceman and the 2022 Stanley Cup, Makar, like so many of his generation of NHL players, has been denied to the chance to add an Olympic prize to his collection.
However, before he reached the NHL, he was offered the chance to go to South Korea as an 18-year-old for the 2018 Games. But having just helped Canada to gold at the world junior championships while being a student-athlete at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Makar felt the timing wasn’t right.
“I didn’t want to put myself in a tough spot for development going into my hopefully second year [at school], whether I turned pro or not, and so felt like at the time, it just wasn’t the right thing for me to do,” said Makar, who was made available by Under Armour, where he’s just signed an endorsement deal.
“I had faith in myself that hopefully I’d be back there one day.”
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As one of millions of Canadian kids who were inspired by Sidney Crosby’s Golden Goal 15 years ago in Vancouver, getting the chance to finally play on that stage seems like a full-circle moment for Makar. But while Crosby naturally captured most of the attention in one of hockey’s heritage moments, for an Albertan kid, the identity of the goal’s architect was every bit as important.
“It was a pretty special moment, obviously, being from Calgary,” Makar said. “And the cool thing for us was, obviously, [Jarome] Iginla assisted on that goal and made a great play, and he was a really big role model for me at a young age.”
Despite being a winger, the former Flames captain is high on the list of players that a young Makar looked up to, along with blueline greats such as Duncan Keith and Nicklas Lidstrom. But while he never got to play alongside any of those Hall of Famers, the return of best-on-best hockey in the form of the 4 Nations Face-Off earlier this year gave him a chance to share a dressing room with Crosby.
“It was great to learn from him and learn from him in terms of what to expect at the best-on-best tournaments,” Makar said. “Obviously, we only had a couple guys that had experienced that before, so he’s definitely a very valuable asset for us on and off ice and he’s an amazing person and a great human being.”
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Crosby, of course, will be there in Milan too, going for a third Olympic gold in three trips to the Games, having also been selected as part of the preliminary roster. And though their time together was brief, the Pittsburgh Penguins captain was equally effusive about his younger countryman, listing off some of the great qualities that will make him a big part of Canada’s arsenal to win a first hockey gold in 12 years.
“Just dynamic,” Crosby said. “He’s a great skater. He sees the ice well. He’s got a big shot. And as a defenceman, he defends really well, closes the gap and makes it tough defensively as well.
“It’s pretty amazing what he does and the way he controls the play when he’s out there.”
As the first blueliner ever to score a playoff goal in his NHL debut – against his hometown Flames, of all teams – Makar set a high bar from the moment he entered the league. He pushed it even higher by becoming just the third player under 23 to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs – after Bobby Orr and Serge Savard – and followed in the footsteps of Orr again – as well as Lidstrom – in becoming the third player to claim the Conn Smythe and Norris Trophies in the same season.
Being mentioned alongside Orr in the NHL record book is one thing, but comparisons between their playing styles have also been repeatedly drawn. It hasn’t hurt that he became the fastest defenceman to reach the 200-point mark (in 195 games), and last season he became just the ninth blueliner to score 30 or more goals, as well as the first with back-to-back 90-point seasons since Paul Coffey and Al MacInnis in 1991.
Makar has heard the comparisons, and though he has never met Orr in person, he finds it a compliment to be compared to someone who retired from playing 20 years before he was even born.
“Obviously it’s an honour, and it’s tough for me to kind of comprehend that,” he said. “To be honest with you, I don’t think I’m quite at that level, but it’s amazing any time you get mentioned with a guy with a name like that, and yeah, just very honoured and humbled to even be in consideration for people comparing that.”