Dude, hey. This hairy, 4-2 decrease the Avalanche endured against San Jose in the NHL playoffs reminded me of something a wiser fella than myself said in “The Big Lebowski. ”

Sometimes you eat the bear. And occasionally Logan Couture, well, he eats you.

Too often on Tuesday night, the Avs were “adorable ” and “soft. ”

Those are the words of Colorado coach Jared Bednar, not mine, dude. . Bednar sternly criticized his team’s insistence on playing hockey and its refusal to perform down-and-dirty work.

Is there anything soft or cute about San Jose?

“No,” replied Bednar, his jaw line as hard as his upper lip stiff with aggravation.

San Jose is about as cuddly. And playoff hockey is a grind. Yes, it can be something of beauty in precious moments when Nathan MacKinnon glides rapidly through the ice. However, blood, sweat and forechecks ’ defined it.

Why do we mention this? San Jose is bigger, not to mention considerably more physical, than Colorado. And nobody was more demanding in Game 3 compared to Couture, who schooled the Avs with a hat trick.

Every NHL team that wins the Stanley Cup is touched by magic. However, no team wins the Cup on magic .

How to define playoff magic? There’s the goalie. And the superstar who will never shine brighter in his career. Maybe an overtime score (or two) by a ham-and-egger on the third line.

The 16-W grind to a tournament is too long to sprinkle pixie dust on each game. Hip checks that bruise and face washes that stink to keep churning have little in common with magic, but everything to do with hoisting the Cup, after 16 playoff victories are hard-earned.

This is not to imply the Avs lack toughness or resolve. However, what MacKinnon and the gang are facing in San Jose is 40-grit sandpaper. Over the course of a seven-game series, this team from California can rub you raw.

Yes, there’s a Shark on each San Jose sweater. However, this team is a bear. In fact, I suspect Brent Burns, Joe Thornton and Erik Karlsson are on a first-name foundation with Goldilocks.

One of the most brave hockey plays I’ve seen since the Avs came in Colorado way back in 1996 was the pass forward Matt Calvert fired ahead, dishing the puck into MacKinnon for what proved to be the winning score late in Game 2. To create the play Calvert ate a ton of bricks, delivered on a rib-rattling hit by Burns.

Calvert was not able to play Tuesday, and we don’t know when he might come back from an upper-body injury. However, the hit that felled Calvert is the kind of nasty shot a team must both deliver and endure to win the Cup.

For almost two periods in Game 3, the bad Bears got the best of Colorado. First, Couture made Avs newcomer Cale Makar resemble a child, turning him every which way but loose in the crease, before knocking the puck past him to get the visitors’ first score. Then San Jose went up 2-0, when Timo Meier thanked Colorado defenseman Erik Johnson for a yummy turnover by beating Philipp Grubauer with an unassisted goal.

“We made some bonehead decisions with the puck,” Bednar said. One as a coach of his best traits is currently staying cool. Bednar, however, was obviously hot and bothered by how Colorado frittered away home-ice benefit.

Riding the roar of the Pepsi Center crowd, the Avs did roar back to tie the game on goals by MacKinnon and Matt Nieto.

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Crunch time, however, was Couture time. He regained the lead for San Jose by pinging the puck off the goal frame more than seven minutes remaining in the third phase, then clinched the victory and secured a hat trick with an empty-netter in the last seconds.

These bears from San Jose don’t dance.

The Avs will learn there’s no room. Or they’ll get eaten alive.

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