The Colorado Avalanche fell to the Detroit Red Wings in overtime at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday night, and their top defenseman blames himself.

A defeated Cale Makar took the blame for the team's demise when he spoke with Guerilla Sports reporter Jesse Montano after the 2-1 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night.

The Avs have struggled this season on the road — a complete 180 from last season where they sat in the league's top five for road wins — but that's not the excuse Makar is using for his personally unacceptable play. 

"I don't know if it's something to do with the road or not," the 25-year-old told Montano. "Felt like we did enough tonight to be able to win, just a bad mistake by me on the PK (penalty kill) — bad game. "

It's not the first time the elite D-man has been self-deprecating after a loss. He has visually shown disdain for his own play off the ice in other instances — most recently at the end of a tough road trip after the All-Star Break. Makar referred to himself as having made "really bad mistakes" following the 6-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The young defenseman has shown to be his own worst critic — as are many professional athletes — and his coach has to just let him figure it out. But Jared Bednar did not point his finger at any individual player for the loss, as he rarely ever does.  

"He's hard on himself, for sure. It wasn't that we weren't trying to do the right things with the puck but we had some execution issues ...," Bednar said after the game. "But second period, I see what he's talking about. We did have a handful of plays that came back in our end where I felt like we could've done a better job on like a community breakout, community neutral zone to get pucks in to make some better changes, to get fresh bodies out. We didn't so it cost us the flow of the game in the second and probably gave them a little bit of life coming into the third as well." 

In his leadership role on the team, the Calgary native said he does more by physical example than speaking. He works to set that standard for his teammates, which most likely makes that more difficult for him when he claims to have made a costly mistake. 

"I'm a guy that's never satisfied with my play, individually, but I got to find a lot of different ways to be better. Obviously, you're just, you're in a hole right now, you just got to dig yourself out. So that's all it is," Makar said. 

Despite only earning a point in the OT loss, Bednar and his team were highly impressed with their backup netminder Justus Annunen's game. The 23-year-old Finn made 28 saves on 30 shots on goal. He has a 1-2-1 record in the four games he has started this season. 

Colorado looks to continue its stellar play at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. Nathan MacKinnon can keep his home-point scoring streak going to 28 with a spot on the scoresheet. 

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