They’re his idle enemies now. The Stars have other worlds to conquer and already know that if they win the next round, they will face one of the teams that eliminated them in the Western Conference finals (Vegas or Edmonton) once more.

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.

It wasn’t a handshake line at the end of this remarkable seven-game series for Mikko Rantanen. It was a hug line.