DENVER — Cale Makar would have felt guilty no matter what he did. He either would have benefited from a bad call or he would have — in his eyes — let his Avalanche teammates down. He chose to come clean to the officials.
“It kind of shows you who Cale is,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Typical Cale.”
Late in the first period against the Islanders on Monday, Makar fell skating around the Colorado net. The referee raised his hand to call a tripping penalty on Mathew Barzal, who had been defending Makar.
But the Avalanche defenseman waved his hand at the referee. He had fallen on his own and didn’t want the penalty called.
“The ref who called it wasn’t the guy at center ice,” Makar said after Colorado’s 1-0 shootout win. “He was kind of behind the net on the far side. I don’t think he had a good angle on it. He just saw me fall. I would like to think that most times I fall it’s usually because somebody trips me. That one I just lost an edge. I felt pretty guilty for the boys there.”
The refs called tripping…but Cale Makar told them he just slipped and the call was overturned 😳 pic.twitter.com/KkU0BJPOkS
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) December 20, 2022
Added Barzal: “Obviously, good sportsmanship on his part. I don’t know if I would have done the same, to be honest with you.”
And after a brief discussion among the officials, the crew announced there was no penalty on the play. The Ball Arena crowd erupted in boos. Makar, meanwhile, felt guilty on the bench.
“I felt a lot more guilty about doing that than probably if I would’ve said nothing,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s something I’ll do again.”
“It’s nice to see some integrity going on,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “Sometimes you’ve got to take the power play, you know? But, hey, at the end of the day, they want to get the call right, and I think that’s the most important thing. It’s a fast game, and it’s tough for the ref. Honorable thing for him to do.”
None of it ended up costing the Avalanche, who dominated in shots (46-26), even-strength shot attempts (76-46, per Natural Stat Trick) and high-danger scoring chances (18-10, per Natural Stat Trick). . The score remained 0-0 through overtime, though, because of an outstanding performance by Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin.
Colorado’s Alexandar Georgiev matched his dominance, though, and also stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout. Evan Rodrigues, meanwhile, netted the winner for Colorado. The hockey gods came through for Makar and didn’t punish the Avalanche after his honesty.
“It would’ve been unfortunate if we didn’t get the extra point in this game,” he said.
Dave Jackson, a former NHL referee who now works for ESPN as a rules analyst, told The Athletic he hadn’t seen anything similar to what happened on the Makar-Barzal play.
“I’ve seen where the penalized player complains so much that the officials get together and realize it was the wrong call, but I’ve never seen a player wave off a power play and the ref actually listen without having a lengthy discussion with the other three,” Jackson said. “Makar is an honest hockey player, and that’ll go a long way in the eyes of officials, respect-wise.”
Makar could’ve left one final mark on the game at the end of overtime when he nearly scored off a feed from Mikko Rantanen. But the New York goalie came through once again and made the save. It took a special move to beat Sorokin, and Rodrigues delivered with a forehand-backhand-forehand beauty in the shootout.
But the talk of the game was Makar, the reigning Norris Trophy winner.
The 24-year-old has expressed frustration with refs’ decisions after multiple games this season, both for calls and non-calls, like when he thought he was tripped Saturday against Nashville. He did the officials a solid against the Islanders, though, and added he “saved the ref from some media attention.”
A similar play to Makar’s wave-off happened in the spring when Capitals star Alex Ovechkin appeared to wave off a penalty against Vegas. Rodrigues mentioned that he was familiar with that play and said that, despite Makar’s feelings of guilt, he didn’t have a problem with him calling off the penalty.
“That’s just Cale. He’s an honest player,” Rodrigues said. “He goes about the game the right way.”
Asked whether he will give Makar any grief for the play, the center said, “You’re not giving Cale crap.”
“It’s Cale,” he added, laughing. “He can do what he wants in my book.”
(Photo: Ron Chenoy / USA Today)
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