Shocking is the only way to put what was witnessed in game seven between Colorado and Dallas. Right when the Avs looked to have the win locked up, none other than their former superstar ripped victory from their clutches. After going up 2-0 heading into the third period, the Avs were just 20 minutes away from the second round, but the Stars came back like a lightning strike and tied the game all off the back of Mikko Rantanen. Rantanen managed to score both goals in the third to tie the game up, had an assist on the Wyatt Johnston goal to give the Stars the lead with just over three minutes remaining, and sealed the deal with an empty net goal, recording a hat-trick in game seven and notching his second four-point game in a row. The outcome was heart shattering for Colorado, after persevering in game six to get to this point, only to fall short to an undermanned Dallas team.

Nathan Mackinnon was asked after the series what he took away from the entire experience, to which he said, “they were without their best defenseman and probably their best forward and we still couldn’t beat them…I dont know what we do from here.” It truly is a head scratcher looking back to what the Avs could have done differently, in the end it all boiled down to the little things. Losing battles on the boards, not being bale to convert on the powerplay, having the man advantage for four minutes in overtime in game five and not being able to put it away.

Questions now arise at what the Avs do to come back stronger next year to be more properly matched with Dallas in the instance that they meet again next year, and frankly im not sure anyone has the answer to that right now. Colorado completely overhauled the roster throughout the whole season in preparation for tough matchups like this all playoffs long, and it still hasn’t enough. They could look at it as a just a bad luck of the draw for a first round opponent and run it back with the same team hoping Dallas isn’t the team you play in round one next year. Even if Colorado meets the Stars in round one again, this was a back and forth series that could’ve gone either way, with it taking a generational performance from Rantanen to push Dallas over the edge. In an alternate timeline Colorado most likely does pull out a win and move on, sometimes misfortune just hits at the worst times.

There is also the question of what to do with pending free agents this summer, most notably Brock Nelson. Nelson was alright this season, but his production in Colorado was probably not adequate to what the Avs had expected out of him. The Avs need to determine whether or not it would be worth it to keep Nelson around with a new contract or possibly look elswhere after the 2C spot has now been replenished with the return of Gabriel Landeskog. Regardless of what the decison they make is, it’ll be a long hard session back at the drawing board to figure out what exactly went wrong and how to fix it in time for next year.

This team is still a perennial cup contender, no massive changes should occur for the team to miss the playoffs, considering they hold the second longest playoff birth streak at eight straight years, and it’s fully expected they will make it nine in a row next season. For now though, it’s time to get some much needed time to relax and unwind from a whirlwind of a season, but it certainly will be hard to Watch Dallas play game one of the second round on Wednesday against Wnninpeg from the couch, when so easily could’ve been the Avalanche in that place instead.

It will be an excruciatingly long five months for Avs fans, but they will be back better than ever before to get back to the place where they know they can be…the Stanley Cup Finals. Until October Av’s faithful….