{"id":664926,"date":"2026-05-25T23:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T23:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/664926\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T23:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T23:15:11","slug":"bednar-avalanche-will-take-a-limited-nathan-mackinnon-as-colorado-trails-3-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/664926\/","title":{"rendered":"Bednar: Avalanche will take a limited Nathan MacKinnon as Colorado trails 3-0"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2013 Just when the Avalanche got back reigning Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar, Colorado might be without Hart Trophy finalist Nathan MacKinnon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Or, at least, will have a highly limited MacKinnon, which was what he was after taking a puck to his right knee in Sunday night’s 5-3 loss<\/a> to the Vegas Golden Knights.<\/p>\n

It’s been that kind of series for the Avalanche, the Presidents’ Trophy winners going down 3-0 in the Western Conference Final. With the possibility of being swept Tuesday night, coach Jared Bednar will take MacKinnon in any form he can get him.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor him to be able to come back out, get some work done late in the second period and intermission and be able to come out and even help us on the power play and empty-net situations, if that\u2019s all he can do, we\u2019ll take it,” Bednar said. “It\u2019s better than anything else, in my opinion, we can put on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

That comment could get plenty of attention in the Avalanche locker room, but as it is, the Golden Knights have Colorado’s full focus.<\/p>\n

The odds might have been in the Avalanche’s favor before the series began \u2014 the team with the league’s best record going against one so desperate to make the playoffs that it fired its coach<\/a> with eight games remaining \u2014 but not now.<\/p>\n

The numbers, in fact, are daunting.<\/p>\n

This is the 50th time in the conference finals or league semifinals that a series has gone to 3-0. All previous 49 teams with that advantage went on to make the Stanley Cup Final<\/a>, with 47 ending the series in six games or fewer.<\/p>\n

Only four teams have erased 3-0 deficits in any round. Los Angeles in 2014 was the most recent team to accomplish that in eliminating San Jose in their first-round series. <\/p>\n

And then there’s the so-called Presidents’ Trophy curse. Chicago in 2013 was the last team to claim that and the Stanley Cup in the same season. Colorado already had firsthand knowledge of the difficulty of pulling off the double, winning the Presidents’ Trophy in the 2021 COVID-shortened season before going out in six games in the second round … to the Golden Knights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be a sense of urgency, but it\u2019s got to be smart urgency,\u201d defenseman Josh Manson said. “It\u2019s got to be desperation. It\u2019s got to be our best style of play the whole night. You\u2019ve got to maintain that sense of do or die, while playing up to the edge. That\u2019s what makes it so difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe margin of error is so thin now, and you\u2019ve got to be able to balance that for at least 12 periods.\u201d<\/p>\n

It will take at least that many periods for the Avalanche to accomplish what no other team has done this deep into the playoffs. They will have to play like the team that looked like the NHL’s best for six months and then the first two rounds of the playoffs when they went 8-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know where we\u2019re at,\u201d wing Martin Necas said. \u201cWe know it doesn\u2019t happen very often, but we still feel confident in this group. It\u2019s not like we\u2019ve been outplayed every game and their team is better than ours. We had a lot of stretches this season where we won four in a row. So we just focus on the next game and take it home and anything can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting it back to Denver for Game 5 would be a start.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team’s played with more intensity and more desperation as the series (has) gone on,\u201d Bednar said. “Hasn\u2019t worked out for us yet. I think with the hill to climb, it\u2019s definitely a tough one. It just doesn\u2019t happen very often, and we\u2019re certainly understanding of that, but I think we have a lot of pride and a lot of character in our room that displayed that time over time throughout the course of the year,<\/p>\n

“This will be our most difficult challenge, but I believe that we will show up and we will be ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2013 Just when the Avalanche got back reigning Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar, Colorado might be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,69843,451,47314,213118,45507,39780,3,99,452,453],"class_list":["post-664926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-cale-makar","tag-headlines","tag-jared-bednar","tag-josh-manson","tag-martin-necas","tag-nathan-mackinnon","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}