This is my third straight day of writing about Mikko Rantanen. I’m still trying to do his Game 7 performance justice, place it in the perspective it deserves and I feel — sort of like Colorado — I keep coming up short.

Rantanen became the first player in NHL history to score a hat trick in the third period of a Game 7. He now has 11 points in his past three Stanley Cup Playoffs games after four points (three goals, one assist; all in third period) in Game 7 and ranks fourth among active players in career postseason points per game (1.28; 113 in 88 games).

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.