NHL suspends Cale Makar for hit on Kraken’s Jared McCann
DENVER — There was some solace for the Kraken on Tuesday, as the NHL did what its officiating crews declined to the prior night by assessing supplemental discipline on Colorado Avalanche star defender Cale Makar for a hit that’s transformed this series.
But Makar getting suspended one game by the NHL Department of Player Safety for his first-period ambush on Jared McCann in Game 4 doesn’t completely solve the Kraken possibly losing their 40-goal man the duration of an opening round now tied 2-2. In issuing the suspension, the department stated: “It is important to note that McCann is in no way eligible to be checked on this play.
“Makar finishes this hit well outside the allowable window for finishing a check. In addition, it is clear that Makar knows McCann is not in possession of the puck when he decides to deliver this hit.”
The league said “the onus is on Makar” to ensure the puck would remain in play before continuing to finish his hit. Makar’s lack of prior disciplinary issues was taken into consideration by the league before assessing the suspension.
Makar will miss Game 5, but McCann will likely be out longer — meaning others must pick up the slack, with workhorse Kraken forward and playoff producer Jaden Schwartz emerging as a front-runner in that regard.
With a pivotal Game 5 set for Ball Arena on Wednesday night, net-front presence could be a determining factor, and no Kraken player is more adept at it than Schwartz, who this season enjoyed his first 20-goal campaign in four years and has been a force throughout this series.
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“Every game’s back and forth, and we’ve done a lot of good things right,” Schwartz said after Monday’s overtime win. “We know what our game looks like when we’re on, and we’ve just got to keep wearing them down. Spend as much time in their zone as we can, and be good with the puck, and leave it all out there.”
Schwartz knows perhaps better than most Kraken players how a team’s fortunes can swing during a critical Game 5 — even in just an opening round. Four years ago, his underdog St. Louis Blues trailed 3-0 in a first-round Game 5 road matchup against Winnipeg, but clawed back into it as time progressed.
It would be Schwartz capping the comeback with a game-winning goal just 15 seconds before regulation time expired. St. Louis returned home with the lead, closed out the series at home two days later and went on to stun the NHL by capturing the franchise’s first and only Stanley Cup.
None of that likely happens without Schwartz, who led the Blues with 12 playoff goals that postseason. He’s similarly left whatever he’s had out on the ice since the series opener against Colorado, but has been particularly productive the last two games — particularly in reviving a moribund Kraken power play with his net-front presence.
He had a pair of power-play goals on deflections in Game 3 and nearly scored a third period go-ahead marker in Game 4 on a goal-mouth scramble that was disallowed on video review when ruled the whistle had blown and the puck was covered by goalie Alexandar Georgiev before it later trickled over the goal line.
Schwartz said he wasn’t sure whether the goal would count or not.
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“I was kind of on the ice,” he said. “There was like three or four guys on top of each other, so I honestly didn’t see what was going on.”
Which aptly sums up life at the net front and why few players truly want to pay the price of going there on a routine basis. Also, why fewer still can be successful at it to the degree Schwartz has been.
Once overtime began, Schwartz took a pass and raced in alone, only to be tripped up at the end by Josh Manson to draw a crucial penalty. On the ensuing power play, Schwartz was again net front, took a Jordan Eberle pass and one-timed it from point-blank range.
The puck hit a defender’s skate but bounced to Eberle for the wrist shot that ended the game, electrified the crowd and breathed new life into a Kraken team now playing with a playoff edge the likes of which it hadn’t before.
“It was awesome,” Schwartz said. “It’s tough to put into words. Obviously, overtime is exciting, and to be on the right side of them is a lot of fun.”
But the fun stops here for the Kraken, entering Game 5 minus their leading regular-season scorer. And knowing they need to maintain their physical edge without losing their composure in seeking retaliation for Makar’s hit on McCann.
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“You’ve got to meet the intensity of the series and continue to have the poise and the presence to play at that level and at that intensity, and the guys did a really good job of that tonight,” said coach Dave Hakstol, who showed composure of his own after Game 4 by strongly disagreeing with the minor penalty call on Makar without overtly blasting officials or questioning their competence.
And Hakstol doesn’t expect the temperature to level off any.
“You know, it’s not going to go in the direction,” he said. “It continues to move forward as we get into Game 5 here and go out on the road.”
They’ll do so having sported a shift-to-shift intensity in Game 4 that veteran Yanni Gourde had been stressing was desperately needed. Now, the Makar hit on McCann seems to have kick-started the Kraken’s playoff intensity to a different level, which Cup winners such as Gourde and Schwartz recognize is needed to get anywhere in postseason play.
Gourde was serenaded off the ice to Climate Pledge crowd chants of “Yanni! Yanni!” after taking part in one of three skirmishes at the end of Monday’s first period — bouts that began with a fierce tussle between Kraken defender and Cup winner Vince Dunn and Colorado forward Artturi Lehkonen.
“We’ve just got to stick with it,” Gourde said. “Stick to the process, the system and work for 60 [minutes].”
Source: The Seattle Times
