With the Stanley cup playoffs set to kick off on April 19th, hockey fans are buckling up for hard hitting, tough fought, exhilarating matchups between the best teams in the NHL. On the western conference side of the bracket, the first series to be announced would be none other than the Colorado Avalanche facing off against the Dallas Stars in round one. For fans of other teams who will be watching this series, it will be nothing short of cinema. However, fans of these two teams who will be watching on the edge of their seats as the Avs and Stars battle it out will be holding their breathes from opening puck drop to the eventual handshake line at the series finale.

There are tons of parameters going into this head to head match, that both fans and the teams themselves should be taking into account when looking at who might have the upper hand.

Roster Changes:

Throughout the course of the regular season, both teams looked destined to be serious contenders for a cup, and have been slowly tweaking and tinkering with their rosters to help bolster their forces in hopes of bringing the best possible team into the playoffs. Colorado by far made more moves out of the two teams, adding much needed pieces to their depth and goaltending that has turned them into the machine that they are now. From completely overhauling the goalies, bringing in both Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood who’ve been stellar in between the pipes for the Avs, to having a massive trade deadline in bringing in depth forwards like Charlie Coyle and Brock Nelson, the Avs made all the necessary moves to fix the weaknesses in their game.

Dallas on the other hand, didn’t go for the safe and mild approach in tuning up their roster, instead opting for the blockbuster shakeup that seriously changes the the odds of their success with just one move alone. After the Avalanche made the decision to trade away their star winger Mikko Rantanen due to complications in negotiating a long-term contract extension, Rantanen ended up in Carolina in exchange for a package including Martin Necas. While Necas was doing wonders immediately in Colorado, Rantenen struggled early with his new team, and made it clear to the General Manager that he had no intention with staying with the Hurricanes long-term. So after only 13 games with Carolina, the Dallas Stars made the craziest move of the deadline and made the second trade for Rantanen in a month and extended him to an eight-year contract in the process. Dallas managed to bring Rantanen back to the Central Division, and now he has to play against his former team in the first round, but unlike in Carolina, Rantanen has been on a tear since joining the green and white. in only 20 games with the team, Mikko managed to notch 18 points, and adding a superstar like him to a team that is already loaded offence of forwards is a recipe for nothing short of a dangerous unit.

Overall both teams made great additions to their rosters, Colorado opting for a more well rounded team by adding depth, and Dallas trying to max out their scoring options on their top-six, and all of the additions these team have brought in will make a massive impact on this series and their entire playoff run beyond the first round.

Injuries And Returns:

As it comes with every pro sport, injuries happen. For both of these teams, they have dealt with injuries throughout the season, and coming into the playoffs the injuries that have hindered these two teams will be very prominent, but even more so will be the players coming back to join their team just in time to wage war in the postseason.

Dallas has had to be alot more in tune with their line construction due to injuries and returns, due to Miro Heiskanen being out after having knee surgery in January and reported to be out for the entire first round of the playoffs. Another last minute injury report for the Stars happened on the last game of the regular season, after leading point scorer Jason Robertson left the game with an apparent lower-body injury. It was reported on Friday that Robertson would be week-to-week with the injury and was officially ruled out for game 1 against Colorado. Losing Heiskanen was already a massive blow to the Star’s lineup, especially on the blue line, but now being down an elite scorer in Robertson certainly puts Dallas in a bind when thinking about how to reconstruct their lines to compensate for the loss. The one sliver lining for the Stars however, has been the thankful return of veteran forward Tyler Seguin, who was recently taken off LTIR and has rejoined the team and played in the last couple of games of the regular season for Dallas. Although Seguin doesn’t have the same offensive output as Robertson, he still brings alot of value to the team in terms of on-ice leadership, and Seguin is still able to produce at a very high level. Seguin came back just in time, and will probably slide right into the hole left by the Robertson injury and will contribute immensely to this team while their top scorer recovers.

As for Colorado, they haven’t had the same bad luck in terms of guys going onto injury reserve. The only thing to note for them being Nathan Mackinnon being left out of the team’s final couple of games for precautionary reasons, but he will be fully healthy and ready to go for game 1. Instead, the Avs have alot more optimism with their roster with their long time captain Gabriel Landeksog getting set to return after a near three year hiatus of being out with injury. I talked all about Ladeskog’s injury and getting set to come back to the team here, but the short rundown consists of the captain being out ever since wining the cup in 2022, and has made much progress this season and is almost set to make his return in round one against Dallas. Coming back right in time to take his veteran leadership and experience and project onto this team is just what the Avs need. It has not been confirmed yet that Landeskog will be ready to go for game 1 of the series, but it is more than implied and the general consensus is that he will play in the series at some point in time, and the magic of Landeskog returning for the cup run might be what Colorado needs to lift them over the Stars in round one.

History And Hunger:

This is not the first time the Avs and Stars have met in the postseason, and Dallas in recent history has been able to get the better of Colorado in the playoffs. Dallas was able to knock off the Avs in seven games in the 2020 conference semi-finals, en route to the Stars making it to the Stanley cup finals. Most recently last season in 2024, the Avs and Stars met once again in the second round and Dallas was once again able to take down the Avs in six games before being eliminated in the conference finals by Edmonton. This season, I expect things to be quite different despite the way things have gone in years previous. Dallas is young and talented, with a star studded roster of guys with true potential to make lots of noise this year if they can make it out of the first round. From Johnston, Hintz, Seguin, Rantanen and others in their forward core, to Jake Oettinger in between the pipes, this Stars team really has the makings to repeat history and take down Colorado once again. However, the one things that Colorado possesses that Dallas may not be able to contain is the hunger of getting revenge and slaying the demons that have haunted the Avs up until this point.

Mackinnon is an animal in the playoffs, and Makar is by far the best defenseman in the National Hockey League, and this Avalanche team knows just how good they truly are and what they are capable of doing in this year’s postseason. This team has all the makings of a Stanley Cup champion, and when the going gets tough the one thing a team needs to get themselves over the hump is a guy who will stop at nothing to achieve victory. A true killer on the ice who will cut down and pick apart an opposing team even when their back is against the wall, and I believe Nathan Mackinnon is just that guy for the Avalanche. Mackinnon knows what it’s like to win a cup, and after you win the first one, you wanna win nonstop, and all that Mackinnon strives for each and every year is to win. Dallas is a strong team, but they just don’t have that psychopath of a worker that refuses to bend or break under the brightest lights like Colorado does.

In conclusion, this in my opinion is going to be one of if not the most entertaining series’ to watch in the first round, both teams will be flying and pulling out all the stops to win. But when push come to shove, I think Colorado has just a little bit more in the toolbox to out duel this Stars team and move on to the second round in a hard fought, gruelling, series that by all means could take all seven games to decide a winner.