NHL reporter Elliotte Friedman is very confident in the Colorado Avalanche. In fact, Friedman believes the Avs are finally past the devastating news that Mikko Rantanen, who the team traded to the Carolina Hurricanes last season prior to the deadline, ended up with a division rival in the Dallas Stars.
On his podcast, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, Friedman and co-host Kyle Bukauskas discussed the Avs and their hot start to the 2025-26 season. Friedman is pleased, as are Avs fans, about how quickly the team has rebounded from last season’s playoff series loss to the Stars.
"They look like they've recovered a lot quicker than a lot of us expected."Elliotte Friedman on 32 Thoughts podcast
Bukauskas followed up with a little bit of an elaboration:
"Right, and I think the fact that it was Rantanen, and the stars that knocked them out, that was maybe the dunking of cold water that they needed to maybe accelerate the healing process."Kyle Bukauskas on 32 Thoughts
I’ve always been one who just wants to move on from bad things that happen to my favourite sports teams, whether it be the Denver Broncos’ loss in Super Bowl XLVIII, or that specific postseason loss to the Stars from last season. However, it is interesting that Rantanen is on a division rival and signed a massive eight-year extension with his new team. The battles between the two teams are even more heated than they were before.
They will continue to be heated. We talk about the Avs’ rivalry with the Detroit Red Wings back in the day. It makes some sense that the Stars would be a team that could compete against that rivalry and make a new one with the Avs. The Stars also have former Avalanche Matt Duchene, though that one might lean towards the “who cares” side of things.
The Avalanche are tied with the Hurricanes with 14 wins on the year. They only have one loss in regulation, and the others have come in overtime or a shootout. They are the hottest team in the league right now. They will be until they aren’t. There are no signs that the Avs are anywhere close to going down a dark path this season. We’ll cross that bridge whenever that starts to happen, and it will. When and for how long? That remains to be seen. It’s a topic for another day.
Colorado Avalanche are well past the Mikko Rantanen era
Mikko Rantanen still has some friends on the Colorado Avalanche, surely the likes of Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, and Cale Makar. However, Rantanen is long gone from the franchise and the team has clearly moved forward without him.
They’ve started off the season stronger and hotter than any other team this year, with just one regulation loss on the year. As Friedman pointed out on his podcast, it’s done. It’s over with. There’s not really a point of talking about the hypotheticals.
The Stars are in second place in the Western Conference with 29 points to the Avalanche’s 33. What I think Avs fans should be focusing on now is the fun battles between the two teams. Both teams will have some wins, some losses. The Rantanen situation makes the rivalry even more fun. The Avs just have to figure out ways to neutralize their former top-liner.
It’s not easy to win in the postseason. However, Rantanen would have to be a beast to put up the same type of numbers in a series against the Avs two times in a row. We’ll see what transpires from here until those games come back around. For now, the team has three more games against the Stars this year, after falling to them in a shootout in their third game of the season.