Mikko Rantanen was a non factor for the first four games for the Dallas Stars in their opening round matchup against the Colorado Avalanche. But once he got going he reminded Avs fans what made him so special, and he sent his former team packing.
The Avs had game 7 in their hands. A 2-0 lead in the 3rd. But a Rantanen goal opened the floodgates that the Avs could not shut. Now with their season over, the questions will pour in.
We break it all down, like we will for the days and weeks to come.
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43 Comments
Who do y'all thank will be Colorado ECHL affiliated in , 2026
Stars fan here. What a fucking series holy hell. That felt like a conference final for sure. And in my opinion, Blackwood showed promise. You guys will be an issue for a long long time. I know this hurts, but we will take care of Mikko.
Mikko Rantanen "nonexistent" in games 1-4; that's not just a bad take, but terrible analysis and a completely biased Avs fan comment. As a former player, your comment was pathetic.
Colorado won a cup 3 seasons ago. Jesus yall are some soft ass babies.
Did these guys mention Nichuskin’s responsibility for Rantanen’s first goal and the resulting momentum swing? There’s no way I’m watching 42 minutes, here.
Congrats to the valiantly wounded Dallas Stars for limping past us and graciously allowing me to enjoy the rest of the playoffs stress-free. Much appreciated! Dear Colorado Avalanche: How many years do we have to go through this? Noted that speed does kill… especially when it’s our forwards dusting by Defense like old furniture. Adorable. But unless our blue line turns into Optimus Prime, it becomes our forwards trying to out score our problems. We can NOT hold a lead! Defense holds leads while we try not to throw remotes at the TV.
Also… are we going to complain about goaltending again? Because I’ve got my bingo card ready and “Blame the goalie” is always a safe square.
And so it goes… golfers, get your tee times in early—you’ll be competing with the Avs players now.
Please send help. And by help, I mean much better on the defense side of the puck. Am I mad? Hell yeah! But let's do the same thing next year again, again and again.
I don't think Blackwood is the guy.
There actually was nothing that great about the Avs season…inject some realism.
This game was so frustratingly typical.
2:13 Avowed, one of the most overhyped and dogwater games of the year.. of course these two would be advertising for that LMAO
That guy is just jealous because they were able to down the Avalanche without two top players. Get over it.
As a stars fan, it's refreshing to hear honest dialog about the missing pieces of Dallas. Surprising actually.
The fact that one of the Dallas dmen had only played 5 NHL games this season says a lot. Defense there has struggled and will be a challenge as they move forward, but Makar & Avs d core couldn't even match that… yeah, not good. And within the series two 4min powerplays where they couldn't get anything going despite having one of the best PP in the league in the regular season.
Don't worry, Avs have the best 4th line in the league! Bahahaha who in their right mind trades a hall of fame, playoff performer?! Avs front office has decimated ths hockey team.
don't change anything. keep this same team together. They learned a lesson here and can only get better and overcome these let downs next time. If you put together a different team, then you go play dallas again next year and the same thing happens. You need to just try again with this squad; this same squad is not going to play dallas the same way next time
Stars fan here. Lots of respect to the Avalanche. This was a hard fought series and felt more like a WCF than a first round series. It’s a shame the playoff format had us meeting so early. At least last year and in 2020, we met in the second round. You guys are always a good opponent in the playoffs and I look forward to seeing the Stars and Avalanche meet in the playoffs in the future.
Dallas fans here to gloat and troll can f right off. No class.
Avs have a deeper problem. The Stars have a ton of deep home grown talent. Heiskanen, Oettinger, Harley, Johnston, Hintz, Robertson, Bourque, Back, Stankoven who they Stars had to trade that Carolina wanted, and now Bichsel. They have all of them locked for 5 years except Robo. I agree,Bednar is not the problem but he is arrogant in not recognizing the Stars are predominantly a HOMEGROWN team. Your organization doesn't develop even secondary talent post draft. The Stars came together as a true team 2 yrs ago. Buying free agents is primarily ARE the Avs. Our guys were developed. It matters in a salary cap laden era. It cost you Rantanen. Jim Nill knows what he is doing from hiring scouts to cap management. Until he traded Stankoven, the only other guy he got rid of was Suter on a buyout. He gave away draft picks because he has a solid core. Decent AFFORDABLE depth matters.
Girard has to make that play on the Rantanen wrap-around goal. Winning teams make that play.
I find it odd that Chris Micieli sticks up for Bednar and Chris MacFarland so much. Bednar chooses his assistant coaches. Bennett should have been gone long ago. I feel like our power-play has needed a new coach for a while. MacFarland is the one who made a mess of the 2C situation, so there is a lot of blame there. Shaggy has it right.
This Avs team was bad ass. Bring the same guys back and just play any team other than Dallas and your good
Avalanche lose to the first ever game 7 3rd period hat trick by A FORMER UNDERVALUED TOP PLAYER WHO HELPED THEM TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP THAT THEY DID NOT WANT TO PAY! Breaking a tie with the leafs for longest game 7 losing streak in NHL history. And meanwhile Bednar goes 0-4 against debour in the playoffs with an absolute clown sitting behind mocking him. Most embarrassing day I've ever had as an Avs fan. This is like a moose hunter getting the gun knocked out of his hands by a moose and getting t bagged.
To me Bednar should be fired. Just look at the terrible power play and penalty kill, and how they finish games. These are all on coaching. Also Dallas was killing us on the across the crease passes and they did nothing to try stop it.
HOOP
The Dallas loss last year was more Nuke than the Seattle loss. You could see what a gut punch it was to have Nuke leave them in the lurch twice in two years.
i feel bad for y'all, man (and all Avs fans). Its getting to the point now, where every post-season, the two best teams in the league beat the snot out of each other in the first round, and run outta gas before they can win the cup. Unfortunately for Colorado, it's been a first round exit for years now. I dont know whats worse; an early exit, or losing it all in the end
Colorado deep? Colorado has SOME depth but they aren’t deep. The point gap between the top three players and everyone else is wide, quite wide. Dallas is deeper and more balanced. This series was won by the better GM.
Does Stan ever get mentioned? When a player is allowed to "walk", i believe this is an owner issue. The GM is a PR guy for the owner.
The Avs has to Fire Chris Mac Farland
The feeling at the end of regular season was Necas + Drury > Mikko in terms of perceived team value. Game seven penalty aside drury certainly proved his worth as a 4th line center for me. Marty’s playoff performance is what casts doubt. Having said that, hard to judge him in isolation when he looked decent (not good enough) in the last two games. Nelson, coyle, lindgren, didn’t impress in the series, and tbh Blackwood left a little to be desired. So the judgement on CMAC is more on the cruel reality that changing so many pieces mid season hurts you harder in the playoffs where chemistry and experience really matters.
Don’t get me wrong, landy returning was amazing special moment. But it’s another brand new player (in some sense) into the lineup. Not enough time to groove in chemistry and patterns of play and it showed. This team needed to click fast and they just didn’t.
When the dust settles we’ll see what we have going into next year. I don’t want to see bedsy go, but next year is gonna be some level of finals or bust if we can piece together a deep roster again.
Really pains me to say this but I think maybe I’m rooting for Dallas to win the cup now and bring some semblance of wake up call to the whole organization of the opportunity we missed
Good show. I know losing hurts. Stars fan here. I think you’re selling the stars depth a little short. Even without our top defender and top scorer, the stars were deeper. Charlie Coyle and Brock Nelson are at best a 4th line center on this team. Honestly, neither one of them probably is on this team because Sam Steele is a PK beast. Neccas is probably a 3rd line winger on this Dallas team. He might have moved to the top line with Robertson out, because we won’t break up the Duchene line,but Dallas was far from decimated. I could go on with others, but I think the point is made. That is not to say the Colorado was not a very good team as well .Dallas is just that deep. Dallas is a more well rounded and constructed team. All 3 4th liners are exceptional penalty killers.
I understand the frustration, but as a Red Wings fan who was actually rooting for the Avs in this series, I think credit needs to be given to the Stars. The Avs did not “play down” to their opponent, the Stars, even with their injuries, were the better team when it mattered. The depth on that team is just as good as the depth on the Avs. Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin are still great players and they’re middle six forwards on this team. Credit needs to be given to guys like Granlund, Dadonov, and especially stud youngster Wyatt Johnston for stepping up and delivering in big moments. Credit needs to be given to Lindell for making great defensive plays and taking on added minutes in Heiskanen’s absence. Credit needs to be given to Back and Steel for shutting down the Avs power play in clutch situations. The Avs lost to the better team.
Dallas has not yet won the Stanley Cup. They just won the first round match in Game 7.
For them it is a long road ahead. The probability is not high that they make it. But surely I wish so. The Finnish line , Rantanen-Hitz- Granlund os on run now.
Lets c if they can can make it. They need Miro and Jason too healthy , and surely Ottinger playing on his level.
Avs is a great team with super talent and they were close to win.
Wonders like this happen seldom , once in 50 yrs pr so that one player in the last period turns alone the game around. When they were two goals down, and 12 minutes left. Crazy.
Stars fan here. Awesome series. I'm sure we'll see yall again next year!
Shouldn’t the finger be pointed at management? Why did they get rid of Mikko?
They treated this series like a November road trip to Columbus, Detroit and Buffalo. No urgency, no killer's instinct. Most embarrassing playoff performance in the franchise's history since the 1986 first round sweep against Hartford (whose goal song is still haunting every true Québec Nordiques fan!).
Stars fan here and you guys nailed it. Take Nate and Cale out and the stars win in at least 5. The stars used their depth and Rantanen’s revenge to beat the avs.
Calling this loss a collapse is completely inaccurate. They played a perfect road game. Mikko Rantanen simply put the stars on his back and win the game for them. He has that ability, he's done it for us hundreds of time, and now he's doing it for the stars because management didn't want to pay him. It really is that simple.
Mikko never wanted to leave. They made him leave. So don’t give us excuses
Stars fan year. Just want to say it was a good series. Avs played with honor. When the Stars aren't playing, I will be cheering for them.
Embarrassing loss. Absolutely embarrassing. I am embarrassed to be a fan.
Most of the "as a stars fan" comments are insufferable.
As soon as that first Stars goal went in, whether you want to admit it or not. Avs fans, we all knew it was over. The Stars were gonna come flying and the Avs were going to cower like they always do.