On the Stars, Avalanche, and the first-round prize fight we've all been waiting for

It's more than a week away, but it's all the really matters now for the Central Division rivals.

Cartoon by Sportstoons.

The Dallas Stars lost to the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday, falling 4-0 in a disappointing, boo-filled showing at home that effectively handed Winnipeg the Central Division title.

At roughly the same time, the Colorado Avalanche lost 4-1 to the Vancouver Canucks, locking Colorado into the No. 3 seed in the Central Division.

The Stars still have three regular season games to play, the Avalanche have two, but all practical thoughts for both teams are now centered on a first-round playoff matchup, which will likely start next Saturday in Dallas.

It’s like the build-up to an old-fashion prize fight, how can the Stars prep for the Avalanche? How can the Avalanche prep for the Stars? We’ve got more than a week to overly devour and overly diagnose every possible angle.

The roster crossover adds to the intrigue.

The Stars made the big deadline splash for Mikko Rantanen, who spent 10 years in Colorado, won the Stanley Cup there, and was seemingly jettisoned out over $500,000 in salary demands — depending on whose story you want to believe.

Matt Duchene will always be disliked in Colorado, he asked for a trade out, and eventually got his wish in dramatic fashion, before returning to rub salt in any old wounds with a series-clinching overtime goal in Game 6 last spring.

On the opposite side, Valeri Nichushkin has turned into the menace in Colorado that everyone thought he would be in Dallas. When he’s been available, Nichushkin has looked like the player that Jaromir Jagr once gushed about. But Nichushkin’s availability has also been one of his greatest liabilities, in back-to-back years he’s left Colorado mid-playoff series for off-ice issues. In fact, his departure last spring before Game 4 against Dallas, when he was leading the Avalanche in playoff scoring, was one of the reasons the Stars ultimately eliminated Colorado.

It’s easy for both sides to find a friend turned foe, someone who was once in your corner that now throws haymakers from the other side.

And then there’s the injury front, another unknown that adds some juice.

Miro Heiskanen won’t be ready for Game 1 of the playoffs, he might not be ready at any point in the series. But his potential return is something the Stars are playing for, hoping his absence can 2025’s answer to what the 1999 Stars did without Derian Hatcher in the first round of that Stanley Cup run.

Tyler Seguin likely will be ready for Game 1 of the playoffs, his injury timeline was scripted this way — the Stars knew going into the season he might need time on LTIR — but past history from 2016 reminds us that just because a player is cleared for the playoffs, it doesn’t mean they are going to be effective. Is Seguin the same player he was before he went under the knife back in the fall? And how much can he really lift a room that’s been struggling with vocal leadership lately?

But if Seguin and potentially Heiskanen’s return are dramatic, it’s got nothing on the journey and potential lift Colorado could see if Gabriel Landeskog is able to return to NHL ice.

Landeskog last played an NHL game on June 26, 2022. He hoisted the Stanley Cup that day, and then missed three full seasons, the extended fall-out of a friendly fire cut on his leg by Cale Makar’s skate all the way back in the Edmonton bubble in a game, fittingly, against the Dallas Stars.

Landeskog is expected to play for the Colorado Eagles this weekend in an AHL conditioning stint and if all goes well, the Avalanche captain could be in the lineup in Dallas for Game 1.

On top of the all the human storylines, we have the current on-ice play for both teams and some of the history that both need to reverse.

The Stars have spiraled lately, making the wrong kind of history against the Vancouver Canucks and then no-showing against Winnipeg. The play this week is was simply the explosion of something simmering underneath, a team that’s been winning, but struggling for close to a month.

It’s wakeup or shut up time for Dallas.

Colorado hasn’t had major issues like Dallas has, but the Stars represent the playoff monster that Nathan MacKinnon has yet to slay in his highly-decorated career. Despite having 45 points in 44 career games against Dallas, MacKinnon was held without a point in Game 7 of 2020 against the Stars and was scoreless in Game 6 of 2024, the two times Dallas ended his season.

For the Avalanche, it’s a series about revenge against an opponent that seemingly has their playoff number.

To add one more wrinkle, this matchup shouldn’t be happening in the first round.

It’s a creation of the divisional-based playoff format, one that somehow has second and fourth-best teams playing in the opening round. Stars-Avalanche should be a conference final, or conference semifinal at worst, it shouldn’t be a guarantee that one of these teams won’t even make it to the second round.

But that’s how it’s been setup, that’s why we get what feels like a title fight in Round 1. It’s more than a week away, but all eyes in Dallas and Denver are already on this one, with the remaining regular season games feeling more like public sparring sessions for the real thing.