The Avalanche’s playoff hopes were crushed by Mikko Rantanen and the Dallas Stars six months ago. And for the first time this season, they get a chance to take on their divisional rival.
READ MORE: Avalanche Game 3 vs Dallas Stars: Facing Rantanen, Lines, Notes & How To Watch
Without Samuel Girard, who is out with an upper-body injury, the Avs look to improve their early-season start to 3-0-0 against the Stars, who defeated the Winnipeg Jets 5-4 in their season opener on Thursday.
Rantanen met with Denver media on Friday to field questions ahead of his return. After a tumultuous regular season in 2024-25, the 28-year-old Finnish forward, in his first of an eight-year contract extension with the Stars, is ready to have more stability.
Colorado’s former top-line winger had a goal and two assists in his season debut for the Stars.
As for the Avs, it’s Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Martin Necas driving the bus for the offense through two games. Each of them has three points, with no other skater on the Avs posting more than one aside from Artturi Lehkonen (goal, assist).
Scott Wedgewood gets the nod in goal, and Brent Burns is set to skate in his 1,500th career game. We’ll also see the debut of Ilya Solovyov, who the Avalanche claimed off of waivers last week from the Calgary Flames.
READ MORE: Avalanche’s Brent Burns Reflects on Career Ahead of 1,500th Game
Solovyov will play on the left side, taking the roster spot relinquished by Girard, albeit he won’t play the same role or minutes. Expect to see Josh Manson possibly shifting to the left to play with Burns, which allows Solovyov to fit in on the third pair with Sam Malinski on the right.
This is the only meeting between Colorado and Dallas before the trade deadline. On March 6, which is deadline day, the Avs are on the road in Dallas in the second meeting between the two clubs. They play twice more after that as they push towards a postseason that could very much include another race for positioning between the two powerhouse teams.
One final note, and this is pure speculation and a light prediction on my behalf. We’ve seen the Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins surprise their fans with jersey reveals. Both teams would wear their usual jerseys for pregame warm-ups before coming out in new threads for the opening puck drop.
It’s very unlikely, but I wonder if the Avs have something like that planned for the Nordiques jerseys. Could they pull something off like that tonight? It would be quite the way to debut the vintage sweaters.
