Makar: Avs must 'prove' they're worth investing in before deadline
The Avalanche dropped their first two games after the 4 Nations Face-Off, and Cale Makar knows his team isn't sending the right message to Colorado's brass with the trade deadline less than two weeks away.
"This is a huge point in the season for us," the star defenseman said after Sunday's 3-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues, per Altitude TV. "Obviously, I think every single guy on this team, we gotta prove to management that this should be a group that they invest in.
"If we keep having games like this, it's going to be hard for them to justify it. It's gonna be on us. We know as a group we have a lot better than this. Just unfortunate when we can't find the consistency."
Nathan MacKinnon was far bristlier than his teammate.
"This was terrible," he said.
The Avalanche opened the scoring in the first period after Devon Toews tipped home Makar's shot. Makar became the third-fastest rearguard to record 400 points (374 games) on the play, trailing only Paul Coffey (359 games) and Bobby Orr (333 games).
The Blues responded with three goals in the second period to secure the win, handing Colorado its second loss in as many days after falling 2-1 against the Nashville Predators on Saturday.
"You can't just judge your team on the final result even though we know how important the final results are," Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said. "But there was so much out of (last night's) game that I liked. I thought we worked really hard, we were detailed, we were highly competitive.
"We kind of started out that way tonight. I liked our first 15 minutes, probably, and then it just disappeared."
All three of St. Louis' goals were buried right at the net. When asked if that was something the Avalanche should replicate amid their scoring struggles, MacKinnon made it clear he wasn't picky about how they light the lamp.
"I'd love to score any way," MacKinnon said. "I don't know if we had a rush chance tonight. I don't know if we had a scoring chance tonight. Yeah, cool."
Colorado outshot the Blues 29-25, and both teams were even with 19 scoring chances apiece at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Avalanche occupy the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference with a 33-24-2 record, but they've played two more games than all three teams ahead of them in the Central Division.
Colorado was similarly flat after the All-Star break last season, losing five of its first six games. However, the club turned things around with a nine-game winning streak in March.
The Avs have a chance to rebound Wednesday against the New Jersey Devils. They have four games remaining before the March 7 deadline.