Renck: Pete DeBoer wanders into Denver collecting jars of hearts, tearing our love for the Avs apart. As the Avs squandered a two-goal lead in Game 7, this went beyond hurt. This was a choke. Colorado ran out its best team since winning the Stanley Cup in 2022, and could not escape the first round. This type of playoff death spawns anger and demands a full autopsy. It raises the question as change percolates in the air. Who is more to blame: general manager Chris MacFarland or coach Jared Bednar?
Keeler: It takes a village to burn a dream. Do you cast blame at the feet of the guy who’s never won a Game 7, in Bednar? Or the guy who traded Mikko Rantanen, in MacFarland? For me, it’s both. Now, to be clear, CMac didn’t trade the Moose to Colorado’s new biggest postseason rival — that would be hockey insanity. But let’s also be real: Rantanen isn’t a Star, and isn’t sending you home with a hat trick, if MacFarland doesn’t give up on contract talks and ship him to Carolina in January for depth parts. It seemed like the right idea at the time — as long as you never, ever saw an angry Rantanen again in the postseason until the Stanley Cup Finals. Yeah, whoops.
Renck: Both left their DNA at American Airlines Center. MacFarland deserves credit for overseeing an in-season HDTV roster makeover. His haul for Mikko Rantanen, both in the trade to Carolina and the pieces added because of the cleared cap space, provided hope for another Cup. He slid all his chips into the middle of the table — which we love — but overlooked the awkward fit of Brock Nelson, and allowed himself to perform the foolish math that several complementary pieces add up to a better option than Rantanen in the playoffs. The Avs needed to trade Rantanen to shake up the locker room, but MacFarland landed terrific regular-season players who turned into postseason ghosts.
Keeler: CMac had the right idea, but his pieces let him down. The season turned on that Moose trade, didn’t it? Only we presumed, for months, that it’d turned for the better. Necas clicked pretty quickly with Nathan MacKinnon, while Mikko looked fairly miserable in Raleigh. And, in hindsight, that was the problem. Sending an all-time Avs legend to a hockey wasteland in Tobacco Road came back to bite the burgundy and blue in about the worst way imaginable. Which, in hindsight, also emboldened Rantanen’s desire to get out of Carolina, and probably emboldened his desire to land right back in the West ASAP.
Renck: MacFarland is much easier to defend than Bednar. He is the greatest coach in Avs’ history, but it feels like he has reached his expiration date. Colorado was supposed to be the Chicago Blackhawks of the 2010s, winning three titles. Instead, the Avs have become the Braves of the 1990s, a one-hit wonder. Bednar got outcoached again, especially on special teams. He is Mike Tomlin to DeBoer’s Bill Belichick. So if the Nuggets can axe Michael Malone, it’s fair to move on from Bednar while Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar remain in their prime.
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Avalanche analysis: Collapse elicits tough questions about what went wrong Keeler: Avalanche should thank coach Jared Bednar for his service, then replace him with DU Pios’ David Carle Mikko Rantanen sends Avalanche home with legendary Game 7: “What you witnessed there was special” Keeler: Denver fans showed up, showed out for Nuggets, Avalanche Game 7s: “Never root against us” Mikko Rantanen’s hat trick dooms Avalanche in brutal Game 7 lossKeeler: While the Avs are bruised, they’re not remotely broken. They could soon be staring at a crossroads, though, given their cap situation and lack of big-time draft chips available to move. It’s uncannily like the Nuggets’ current profile, minus the internal office drama. With MacKinnon and Makar, Bednar could win 45-50 games in the regular season for the next decade — easily. He’s fine. They’re fine. But they also knew this Dallas series was coming for weeks — not days. They had time. They had the personnel. Still blew it. Bedsy feels a little like the Avs’ George Karl right now. And it might take a hard reset of the entire front office — MacFarland included — to get Nate and Cale to lift at least one more Cup.
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