Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar missed the first two playoff games of his career due to an upper-body injury.
The team hosted the Vegas Golden Knights for Games 1 and 2 of the Western Conference Final at Ball Arena.
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The 27-year-old Norris Trophy finalist sat out Wednesday's series opener, which Colorado lost 4-2.
He remained sidelined on Friday despite participating in an optional morning skate and taking practice repetitions with the top power-play unit.
Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar confirmed the defenseman's absence following the morning skate on Friday.
He declined to share further details regarding the rest of the team's lineup changes.
"I'm not going to give you any other lineup decisions," Bednar said. "I'll give you (Makar) is out, that's it."
The coach emphasized that injuries impact every team in the postseason.
He pointed out that Vegas is currently playing without forward Mark Stone, while the Minnesota Wild previously lacked Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin.
"It hurts when you don't have Makar, but every team is going through that," Bednar said. "(The Golden Knights) don't have (forward Mark) Stone.
Stone's an impact player for them. Minnesota didn't have (forward Joel) Eriksson Ek or (defenseman Jonas) Brodin.
We didn't have players.
Our goal is to be the best version of ourselves that we can be tonight, and that's without Cale and so be it.
I still think we are capable of winning a hockey game if we are better than we were the other night."
