The Colorado Avalanche fell to the Las Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night in their season opener. Had it not been for The Moose, Mikko Rantanen, the Avalanche would have looked completely flat.
Rantanen had three goals on the night, recording his eighth career hat trick. During the team’s latest Stanley Cup-winning season, Rantanen had the most hat tricks of his career, with three. He was the one who gave the team some life in a game that saw the Avalanche surrender eight goals.
Each of the goals Rantanen had on Wednesday night were awesome in their own way. I mean, from his first goal, where he was standing pretty much all alone at the top of the left circle (when looking at the goalie), to his second goal that saw him throw a nice one-timer on a pass from Cale Makar.
Then there was his third goal. By this point, you would think that the Golden Knights would be all over Rantanen after his two-goal performance. Nope, instead of tight coverage, the Golden Knights decided to follow the puck because of the Avalanche’s stellar passing in those particular moments.
That left Rantanen for a goal that I could probably even make happen. It got goaltender Adin Hill very out of position, leading to a wide open net.
At that point, the game was 5-3 in favour of the Golden Knights at the 13-minute mark of the third period. Unfortunately, even with an additional goal by Casey Mittelstadt, that was their final scoring moment of the night as they lost 8-4.
You can check out each of Rantanen’s goals from the night here.
Rantanen could follow his last two seasons with another 100-point-plus effort. Wednesday evening was a great start to try to make that happen.
Mikko Rantanen set for contract extension from the Colorado Avalanche
Among the things the Colorado Avalanche have to get done by the time free agency rolls around next offseason is getting Rantanen to put pen to paper on a long-term contract extension. I bet you $1,000 that Rantanen’s camp will bring up the season-opener performance by him to make a case that he should get a significant boost in salary.
I speak for everybody when I say that I think that Rantanen deserves a big pay raise. Heck, by the time it finally happens, he could have earned more money based off of his performance this year.
The Avalanche absolutely hope that that is the case. They want the best Mikko Rantanen that they can possibly get. He is a huge part of this team’s offensive game, literally and in the sense that he has been consistent over the last couple of years.
They should probably get a deal done sooner or later, or his price tag will become very, very big. Of course, it would definitely be worth it. He’s worth every penny.