Colorado Avalanche star defenseman Cale Makar was suspended one game by the NHL on Tuesday for his hit on Seattle’s Jared McCann early in a Game 4 loss to the Kraken.

Makar, last year’s Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP, will be a spectator for Game 5 on Wednesday night with the series tied 2-2. The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced the suspension after a hearing with Makar.

“Disappointing, but I really don’t have any thoughts on it besides that,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said after the team arrived in Denver.

Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said after the Kraken's 3-2 overtime win Monday night that McCann would miss Game 5 and likely be out longer. He did not specify McCann’s injury.

Hakstol said Tuesday after the Kraken arrived in Denver that his team wouldn't be wrapped up in debate around Makar's suspension.

“The feel that I get from our players is they’re not going to be concerned about the suspension — yes or no, or the length of it — they have a concern for their teammate who’s gone through pretty tough night and going through some tough time today as he comes through this," Hakstol said. “Their focus is on Game 5 tomorrow night, so that simplifies it.”

In a video announcing the suspension, the league called it an improper “body check to a vulnerable player.”

“Makar finishes this hit well outside the allowable window to finish a check,” the league said. “In addition, it is clear that Makar knows McCann is not in possession of the puck when he decides to deliver this hit.”

The suspension is another blow for the Avalanche, who played the past two games without forward Valeri Nichushkin for personal reasons and have been beset by key injuries for much of the season.

Makar has led Colorado in ice time in the series, averaging 25 minutes, 15 seconds per game and he played nearly 27 minutes Monday night. He has one goal and two assists through the first four games.

Makar has no history of being fined or suspended since making his NHL debut in 2019.

“Just other guys stepping up. We’ve done it all year with different injuries and guys in and out of the lineup. Lots of roster fluctuations. Just got to move on,” Bednar said. "You’ve got to set your game plan and other guys will have to step up and play well. Obviously what he does has to be covered by committee, all six guys on the back end, just move forward, keep pushing forward.”

The hit happened midway through the first period as McCann had a short-handed breakaway attempt. His shot was saved by Colorado goalie Alexandar Georgiev with the puck going over the glass into the netting.

McCann appeared unprepared for the hit from Makar, which left Seattle’s leading scorer from the regular season on the ice for several minutes and needed help to get to the bench.

"We’re really going to miss him," Seattle defenseman Vince Dunn said. “We don’t want that to be a distraction in our locker room. We want to focus on the plan that we have in hand.”

Makar said he was unaware where the puck was when he made the hit. He was originally given a 5-minute major penalty but it was reduce to a 2-minute minor for interference after a review.

Hakstol said he still had questions about how the penalty could be downgraded from a major to a minor during the game, but deemed worthy of suspension a day later.

“It’s unfortunate. I never want to injure guys. Hopefully he’s all right,” Makar said after the game. “I didn’t feel like I tried to finish him that hard, but I feel like if I was in that scenario they would have done the exact same thing. I’m not trying to hurt anybody.”

It is the second suspension of the 2023 playoffs. Toronto’s Michael Bunting was given three games for an illegal check to the head of Tampa Bay’s Erik Cernak in the teams’ series opener. Cernak remains out for Game 5 on Thursday night, while Bunting is eligible to return.

PANTHERS at BRUINS, Boston leads 3-1 (7 p.m. ET, ESPN)

The Bruins are getting stronger as they try to eliminate the Panthers on Wednesday night.

Captain Patrice Bergeron returned to practice Tuesday after missing the first four games of the series with an unspecified upper body injury. The Bruins will likely still be waiting for forward David Krejci. Coach Jim Montgomery said Krejci might be ready to come back for Game 6.

The Panthers are also getting healthy. Coach Paul Maurice said defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who left Friday’s game with an unspecified injury and missed Sunday’s, will be back. Forward Anthony Duclair, who missed Game 4 as well, is also expected to return as Florida tries to stay alive.

Kraken believe return to normalcy has helped fuel success

SEATTLE (AP) — Before this unexpectedly successful season for the Seattle Kraken began last fall, the team spent three days in the mountains of Alberta doing the kind of team bonding that was impossible in the expansion franchise's first season.

Dinners. Golf. Just hanging out and getting to know one another.

“I think it definitely makes a difference — chemistry, getting to know each guy,” Seattle forward Ryan Donato said. “It’s hard to say what you learn from each guy, but you just become a tighter group. You become friends with a guy, you get to know his interests, you get to know what he’s all about, what kind of guy he is. It’s easier to step up for a guy that you know a lot more about, or that you’re a lot more friendly with.”

The changes from Year 1 to Year 2 for the Kraken have been, and continue to be, significant. They will play Game 5 of their first-round playoff series against Colorado on Wednesday night in Denver with the series tied 2-2, a position that seemed highly unlikely to those outside the organization when that team retreat in Canada took place more than six months ago.

But one of the biggest changes for the Kraken on and off the ice has simply been normalcy. Whether it’s been simple team activities or outreach in the Seattle community, the Kraken have been able to operate without the same COVID-19 restrictions or concerns that limited what they could do in their inaugural season.

Seattle wasn’t alone in facing restrictions on what it could and couldn’t do as a team during the 2021-22 season due to the pandemic. But those issues were uniquely impactful on the Kraken because they had never played together before.

With only a few exceptions had any of the players from Seattle’s inaugural roster played on the same team before. And none had played as a collective unit.

“It was probably a little bit harder for us just in the sense that we had all these new players trying to learn a new system, their family’s new in the area,” Seattle general manager Ron Francis said. “We had a bunch of different team events planned to start the season, we couldn’t do any of them because of COVID flare-ups and things happening. We couldn’t really do anything over the course of the season.”

Or as Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke said, “Starting a franchise in the middle of a global pandemic is not exactly how you want to go about things.”

Those COVID issues were disruptive from the start. Seattle initially thought it would be without five players for the first game in franchise history due to COVID protocols. A month into the season, the team’s first captain, Mark Giordano, had to spend 10 days in a Florida hotel after a positive test. Such disruptions made finding consistency on the ice nearly impossible.

“Last year was tough for us especially with COVID,” goalie Philipp Grubauer said. “The core wasn’t really grown together. It was not really perfect chemistry. You have to play a certain amount of games to get that goal and get the chemistry.”

This season has been different. On the ice, Seattle produced one of the biggest one-year turnarounds in league history, finishing with 100 points in the regular season. In their first playoff appearance, the Kraken have given the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche a far tougher battle in the first round than many expected.

Away from the rink, the Kraken were able to start some of the community outreach that was almost nonexistent in their first year, whether it’s player appearances, skills clinics or autograph opportunities.

Those little things helped the team connect with fans. And combined with a playoff appearance, the Kraken believe those efforts will help solidify their long-term foundation in Seattle’s sports marketplace.

“You kind of want to make this a hockey town and have people love going to Kraken games and enjoy the product of playoff hockey, which is obviously why we play the game,” Seattle’s Jordan Eberle said. “It’s enjoyable. I mean, you hear it out there. It’s unbelievable. So I mean that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Been there, done that: Cup winners bolster NHL playoff teams

Before the Seattle Kraken played the first NHL playoff game in franchise history, players heard from those on the roster who have already won the Stanley Cup.

“(They) told us guys that haven't been there before just what to expect,” young defenseman Will Borgen said.

The Kraken not only have half a dozen Cup winners, but those players come from a variety of different championship teams. They're not alone: 14 of the 16 teams in the postseason field have at least one player with his name on the Cup and every single champion since the league's salary cap era began in 2006 is represented somewhere.

It's another reminder how important it is this time of year to have players who have gone through the playoff grind and hoisted the Cup before. No team has won it all without a previous champion on the roster since the Calgary Flames in 1989.

“Everybody climbing Everest is not going at it alone,” Boston Bruins general manger Don Sweeney said. “Chances are, they probably have somebody who has already climbed there, and to their credit, you climb it once and to go back there and sign up to climb it again. They know how hard it is, but it’s valuable, valuable knowledge.”

The top-seeded Bruins, who set records for the most wins and points in a season, have Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Krejci from the team that in 2011 won the organization's sixth championship. Chasing a seventh, Sweeney also traded for Dmitry Orlov, who won the Cup in 2018 with Washington and has been a vital playoff contributor with points in each of the first four games.

Defending champion Colorado has the core intact from its 2022 title run, but that didn't stop the front office from adding more experience. The Avalanche acquired 2018 Capitals champion Lars Eller prior to the trade deadline; he knows well the value of title-winning experience thanks to what Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen showed him and his teammates five years ago.

“To stay level-headed, the experienced guys do a good job of that,” said Eller, who scored the Cup-clinching goal for Washington. "You stay emotionally level through a series because there’s ups and downs. Whether you’re up or you’re down, you can never look too far ahead. You also can’t dwell on the past."

With New Jersey and the New York Rangers tied 2-2, each team has at least one champion to rely on. The Devils' Ondrej Palat won the Cup twice with Tampa Bay alongside Barclay Goodrow, who is one of three champions on the Rangers roster (Patrick Kane, three titles with Chicago, and Vladimir Tarasenko, who won the Cup with St. Louis in 2019).

Seattle, which is tied 2-2 with Colorado, has the most diverse Cup-winning experience. Counting injured winger Andre Burakovsky, who won it with Colorado and Washington, the Kraken have a player from each of the past seven title teams: Yanni Gourde ('20 and ‘21 Lightning), Jaden Schwartz and Vince Dunn ('19 Blues), Philipp Grubauer ('18 Capitals) and Justin Schultz ('16 and 17 Penguins).

“Obviously this is a new experience for us as a team,” said Jordan Eberle, who scored the overtime winner Monday for the Kraken to tie the series. “There’s a lot of individuals on this team who have been on long runs and have won Cups, and I think that’s important that we have that experience.”

Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said having Cup champions helps in turning the page, which is important after a big win or a tough loss. Ken Hitchcock, who coached Dallas to the Cup in 1999, sees value in it in multiple areas — from knowing how to minimize mistakes to riding the roller coaster within games and series.

“Those players know how deep you’ve got to dig emotionally and how important that is that you can’t lower the emotion bar, and having gone through it helps the other players because they recognize that you can’t lose that level,” Hitchcock said. “They recognize that getting revved up or getting emotionally charged too early can burn you out because the emotion of the event is so high, so being very methodical and unemotional in your approach really works and players have to go through that to understand it.”

Those lessons are fresh for members of the Avalanche, who had to go through the two-time defending champion Lightning to win the Cup. Forward Mikko Rantanen said the biggest was about mental strength and bouncing back after playing poorly.

There's also something to be said for the hunger of players who have gone deep into the playoffs, reached the final and come up short. The Bruins, for example, lost in the final in both 2013 and 2019.

“We have guys that went to the doorstep and lost, as well, in a heart-breaking way," Sweeney said. “Those are battle scars that I think also serve them well.”