Cale Makar may or may not be on the ice for Sunday’s Game 3 at T-Mobile Arena in Vegas. Either way, the Avalanche have enough star power to come back against the Golden Knights.

They just need that star power to shine a lot brighter, starting at 6 p.m. (ESPN).

“(Makar’s) been in the gym strengthening and testing it on the ice,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said Saturday. “Cale is the only person that knows when he’s good enough to play; that’s why it’s his decision. We know what the injury is, we know what he’s dealing with, we know that we’re going to expect him back at some point, but you got to get to a level of being comfortable with what you’re dealing with, and the pain tolerance, and depending on what he’s dealing with, he will tell us when he’s ready to play, so it’s just really as simple as that.

“No one can go into Cale’s body and feel what he’s feeling, so when he feels like he can do all the things he needs to be able to do on the ice to play, then he’s going to make the decision to play.”

There’s no one in the Avalanche lineup that can replace what Makar does on a nightly basis, but this isn’t the Colorado Makars. He’s not the only reason they won the President’s Trophy. They have a perennial Hart Trophy candidate on their roster, a 100-point winger, another 30-goal scoring center and plenty of other talented players that can help make up the difference in the short term until Makar returns to the lineup.

The problem is the Avalanche aren’t getting enough from their top players this series, and at times, throughout the entire postseason.

The playoffs are a sprint to the finish line, which can create some statistical anomalies. When players get hot, they get really hot and can ride that hot streak to the end of the postseason. Look at Alex Newhook in Montreal. He’s on a heater right now and nearly everything is going right for him, as evidenced by his 24.1% shooting percentage.

The opposite is happening to some of Colorado’s top players. We’re 11 games into the postseason run for the Avalanche and Nathan MacKinnon, one of the best players in the world, has not scored a goal at 5-on-5 despite 27 shots on goal and 63 shot attempts. Brock Nelson also has not scored a 5-on-5 goal all postseason, while Martin Necas, Artturi Lehkonen, Valeri Nichushkin and Nazem Kadri have all been held to just one.

Most of those players have picked up points, whether it be on the power play or with the net empty on either side, so it’s not like they’re not contributing at all, but with power plays getting harder and harder to come by, scoring at even strength is paramount at this point in the playoffs.

Bad luck plays a role in some of it. The sheer quantity and quality of chances that MacKinnon has generated over the course of the 11 games put him at 2.7 individual expected goals at 5-on-5. Considering none of those shots have entered the net, you could say he’s had a bit of bad luck.

That’s not the case for all of those players, though. Necas has generated just 1.07 individual expected goals at 5-on-5, so his one goal is pretty representative of what he’s generated when he has shot the puck. Lehkonen and Nichushkin have generated a bit more for themselves, but not by much.

The underlying numbers for Colorado’s best players aren’t bad. But when you’re down 2-0 in the Western Conference finals, those numbers only go so far.

At some point, pucks need to start entering the net.

“We got to find a way to produce, right?” Bednar said. “Part of the reason why their top guys are producing is we’re giving them those easy opportunities. They’re not giving those to us. … If you look at expected goals-for percentage, (MacKinnon’s) numbers are great. And then you put him with ‘Lehky’ and Landeskog, and they’re off the charts. I think they were 86% (Friday) in the game together, when they were together, so it’s not like they’re not creating looks, but we got to find a way to make it a little more difficult on Hart and breaking his eyesight, and keep going to war in the low slot area, try to pick up some chances.”

MacKinnon and Necas have played all season together, but against the Golden Knights, it hasn’t worked. They’ve started each of the first two games on a line with each other, but due to their struggles, Bednar has had to break them up in both games. Colorado’s best 5-on-5 looks have come off the sticks of Kadri, Ross Colton, Logan O’Connor and Gabriel Landeskog, who has been the most consistent forward in terms of production.

Through two games against Vegas, with the numbers publicly available on Natural Stat Trick, seven Avalanche forwards have generated more individual expected goals for themselves than MacKinnon at 5-on-5. Nine have generated more than Necas. With the margin for error as thin as it is right now, it will be borderline impossible for the Avalanche to come back in this series if those two, among others, can’t generate more offensively.

Friday was as close to a must-win as you could get for the Avalanche, but Sunday’s Game 3 is an absolute must-win. And the Avalanche need their best players to be their best players if they plan on making this a series.