CALGARY, Alberta — The NHL’s best defenseman trains outside city limits in the corner lot of a business park beside a martial arts studio and lawn care service.
Snowbanks line a small parking lot in front of the roughly 5,000 square-foot building with an industrial metal exterior. The descending sun in a blue sky above white-capped mountains on the horizon casts a long shadow across the entrance. It’s quiet. But silence is broken when the front door swings open.
Welcome to DASH: Cale Makar’s hometown gym in the Avalanche offseason.
“I go back there for most of the summer,” Makar said.
Country music is bumping inside for a handful of youth hockey players working out during a weekday afternoon in March when DASH co-owner Zac Whitby offers The Denver Gazette a tour.