Since the Stanley Cup win in 2022, the Avalanche have won just one playoff series and lost two Game 7s in the process. With MacKinnon and Cale Makar at the height of their primes, Colorado has to find a way to get back over the playoff hump for another deep run.

And to think, there was about a week there where the entire hockey world was wondering if Mikko Rantanen was going to show up in this series. Rantanen scored three third-period goals — two Herculean solo efforts and an empty-netter — to erase a two-goal deficit,