FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Mikko Rantanen was at ease Friday when talking about the excitement of starting the playoffs, which the standout forward experienced with the Colorado Avalanche each of the past seven seasons that included a Stanley Cup title.

Except this time Rantanen will be on the other side with Dallas, in a first-round Western Conference series against the Avalanche that starts Saturday night.

Colorado traded Rantanen on Jan. 24 to Carolina in the East, where he played only 13 games. A deadline deal March 7 sent him back to the Central Division with the Stars and included a $96 million, eight-year contract extension.

“It’s Dallas against Colorado and I’m part of Dallas. So that’s that’s how I look at it," Rantanen said.

So can it really be that simple for the 28-year-old forward?

“Yeah, I guess we’ll see,” he said. “But, you know, it’s business and like I said, the trade didn’t happen two days ago. ... It’s been a while now since I haven’t played with the Avs anymore. What is it, three months almost, so I think it's all behind us now, and now it’s just part of a new team.”

Rantanen was picked 10th overall by Colorado in the 2015 draft and was three weeks shy of his 19th birthday when he made his NHL debut later that year. He scored 705 points in 652 regular-season games for the Avs, plus 100 points in 82 playoff games, before they traded him in the final season of his contract.

“It's going to be different. but that’s his new home, and it’s going to be his new home for eight years,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "That’s the life of pro hockey sometimes in the business side of it. So he’s going to be a big factor in this series. Again, it’s not just one player and one line.”

Martin Necas, who came from Carolina in the first Rantanen trade, has taken full advantage of spending time on the same Colorado line as Nathan MacKinnon, the league’s reigning MVP. Necas, one of the rare skaters quick enough to keep pace with the fast-flying MacKinnon, has 28 points (11 goals, 17 assists) in his 30 games.

Rantanen has five goals and 13 assists in 20 games with the Stars. He had 64 points (25 goals, 39 assists) in 49 games for Colorado this season, when he had 88 points (32 goals, 56 assists) in 82 games overall for his three teams.

Opening struggles

The Stars have lost Game 1 in their past seven playoffs series, including all six while making it to the Western Conference Final each of the past two seasons when five of those openers were at home.

“There’s a real history there of starting slowly, and we've lived that,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “I don’t think we can hang that on this group. ... New people, new year.”

Well, this group finished the regular season 0-5-2 during a stretch with the Stars already locked into their playoff spot and matchup against the Avs.

“The last 2 1/2 weeks, we've been looking forward to this, and I think that that was reflected in our play for a lot of it,” DeBoer said. “This is what you play for.”

Injured Stars

The Stars will be without top goal scorer Jason Robertson because of a lower-body injury suffered in their last regular-season game Wednesday.

DeBoer on Friday described Robertson, who has 35 goals and 45 assists, as week-to-week.

Dallas is also without standout defenseman Miro Heiskanen, who missed the last 32 regular-season games and hasn't returned to practice since after injuring is left knee against Vegas on Jan. 28.

Captain Gabe

Longtime Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog might be on the cusp of making his return to the NHL for the first time since helping them hoist the Stanley Cup in late June 2022.

Landeskog has been out with a knee injury that has led to a couple of surgeries and caused him to miss the past three regular seasons. The 32-year-old Landeskog last weekend finished a two-game stint with the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League as part of a conditioning assignment.

“He’s close. He’s close. He’s getting close," Bednar said Friday. "Obviously, every day I feel like he getting a little quicker and a little bit more confident, little more sure of himself. He’ll be an option for us in this series.”

Net gains

Colorado has quite a tandem in goal thanks to a pair of in-season trades.

First, the Avalanche picked up backup goalie Scott Wedgewood in a deal with Nashville on Nov. 30. Wedgewood, who backed up Jake Oettinger in Dallas the past two seasons, is 13-4-1 with a 1.99 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage over 19 games in Colorado.

Colorado then made a bold move on Dec. 9, trading starting goaltender Alexandar Georgiev to San Jose for Mackenzie Blackwood. Blackwood since has posted a 22-12-3 mark with a 2.33 GAA and .913 save percentage.

Past games

The home team won all three meetings during the regular season, the last a 4-3 overtime win by the Avalanche on March 16, when Rantanen played against his former team for the only time.

Colorado’s only trip to Dallas was Nov. 29, when the Stars won 5-3.

The Stars won a six-game series against Colorado in the second round of the playoffs last season.

Nichushkin's personal life is in a 'good spot' ahead of Avalanche-Stars playoff series, coach says

DENVER (AP) — Valeri Nichushkin took strides to take his hard-checking, goal-scoring game to another level this season.

Same with his life away from the rink, his Colorado Avalanche teammates, coach and GM maintain.

It was nearly a year ago against the Dallas Stars when Nichushkin was suspended for six months and placed in Stage 3 of the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. The announcement came just before Game 4 of the second-round series, marking the second straight postseason where the right winger from Russia was unavailable because of circumstances away from the ice.

Nichushkin and the Avalanche are facing the Stars — the team that drafted him in 2013 — in a first-round series that starts Saturday in Dallas.

“His personal life’s in a really good spot,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said Friday before the team boarded a plane for Dallas. ”I’m just really happy for him and proud that he put in the work."

Added teammate Logan O’Connor: "Anyone that goes through that personal adversity, it’s hard not to root for them. The comeback he’s had has been remarkable. To play at the level he has, it’s definitely something that guys are proud of for him, and we certainly root for him all the time.”

When in the lineup, the 30-year-old Nichushkin has been a valuable piece for the Avalanche. The team is 224-79-29 all-time when he plays. But he’s missed the past two playoff losses for off-the-ice issues.

Earlier this week, general manager Chris MacFarland was asked about potential trust issues given what's transpired with Nichushkin.

"I’ve got the utmost confidence and faith in Val,” MacFarland said. “I look at what he’s done on the ice and what he’s had to go through, and again, have the utmost faith in him that he’s in a great place, and he’ll continue to to grind it out here for us and be a good player.”

Nichushkin missed the opening 17 games because of the suspension before making his season debut on Nov. 15 against Washington. He’s banged up, too, and sidelined for 21 games due to a lower-body injury. Still, he finished with 21 goals and 13 assists in averaging just under 20 minutes of ice time.

The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Nichushkin is a “forechecking machine,” according to defenseman Erik Johnson, and contributes on special teams. He had his first regular-season hat trick last month.

“Just a player everyone needs but not everybody has,” Johnson said of Nichushkin, who was an integral part of Colorado winning the Stanley Cup in 2022. “We’re luck to have him.”

It was a blow for the Avalanche losing him against the Stars. Colorado went on to lose the series in six games.

This after Nichushkin abruptly left the team in a 2023 first-round playoff series against Seattle for what was described as personal reasons. He missed the final five games of that postseason as the Avalanche lost the series 4-3.

“He took the right necessary steps to get in a healthy place. We had his back the whole time,” O’Connor said. "He's been awesome. I think he’s really improved on his own well-being, and he’s opened up more. As a locker room, we maybe weren’t doing as good of a job making him feel open before that as well. It’s collectively been really healthy this year. You’ve seen the results on the ice, and we’re really proud of him.

"It’s been a tough journey for him, but we’re happy he’s at where he’s at. He’s in a great place.”

Dallas Stars going into playoffs without injured top goal scorer Jason Robertson

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — The Dallas Stars will begin the playoffs without top goal scorer Jason Robertson, who suffered a lower-body injury in their last regular-season game, coach Pete DeBoer said Friday.

Robertson is week-to-week, which rules him out for at least the first few games of the opening-round series against Colorado. DeBoer didn't provide any additional details about the injury.

Game 1 is Saturday night in Dallas.

Robertson, who leads the Stars with 35 goals scored and also has 45 assists, got hurt in a 5-1 loss Wednesday at Nashville. He was involved in an awkward collision along the boards with Predators forward Michael McCarron. Robertson was seen wearing some kind of brace on his right leg when leaving the arena after that game.

“It was a hockey play. (McCarron) is a physical guy. He’s going to get a piece of you as you move the puck,” DeBoer said Friday. “They just happened to be going opposite directions.”

When asked if there was any hope of Robertson playing against the Avs, DeBoer responded, “If the series goes more than a week, then yeah.”

Nuggets bring perfect mark under interim coach David Adelman into NBA playoffs against Clippers

DENVER (AP) — Many in the NBA world wrote off Denver as a championship contender after Nuggets boss Josh Kroenke fired his head coach and general manager with just three games remaining in the regular season.

No team ever had such little time to adjust to a new voice heading into the playoffs, Yet, the Nuggets, facing the possibility of falling into a play-in position, responded by going 3-0 under interim coach David Adelman.

That run secured the fourth seed in the top-heavy Western Conference playoffs and the home-court advantage for their first-round series against the fifth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers, with Game 1 Saturday at Ball Arena.

Following their first game under Adelman, a 124-116 win at Sacramento that came the night after Michael Malone and Calvin Booth were dismissed amid a festering feud, superstar Nikola Jokic delivered a curt message to friend and foe alike.

“People say that we were vulnerable, but the beast is always the most dangerous when they’re vulnerable," Jokic said, suggesting that perhaps Kroenke “woke up the beast.”

Kroenke said he made the moves in an effort to salvage the season and praised his coaching staff and roster for rising to the moment.

The Nuggets earned a week's rest but they certainly didn't draw a cupcake in the opening round.

The Clippers enter the postseason as the NBA's hottest team, having won their final eight games and going 18-3 down the stretch. Their only losses over the last month were to the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder (103-101 on March 23) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (127-122 on March 30).

“They're a great team,” Jokic said. “They are playing really well lately. They have dangerous players and they have players who are really probably the best at their roles coming off the bench. They're really dangerous. We know it's going to be a really big task for us, but I think we are ready for it.”

Joker poker

Jokic is a three-time MVP but none of those awards followed a season like the one he just had. He's just the third player to average a triple-double over a season and he set career highs in points (29.6) and assists (10.2) to go with his 12.7 rebounds per game.

Jokic is the first player in NBA history to finish in the top-3 in all three categories in the same season.

“Preparing for him is not an easy task," Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. "It’s not going to be something where we got to expect Zu (Ivica Zubac) every night to be able to guard him 1-on-1. We got to give him different looks to try to keep him off-balance. If you double-team him, he’s going to have 15 assists, if you stay at home he might have 50 (points).”

Untethered Leonard

While the Nuggets went 14-13 after the All-Star break, the Clippers have been ascending ever since Kawhi Leonard returned after missing the season's first 34 games while taking it easy on his surgically repaired knees.

Leonard won two NBA championships — one with San Antonio and another with Toronto — but his health has been a major issue during his five years in Los Angeles.

Leonard, who appeared in just two playoff games the last two years because of injuries, is looking like his old — or shall we say, young — self.

“It feels good for us and him playing at a high level helps our team out tremendously,” Lue said. “I’m happy for him for, all the hard work he’s put in to get to this point and to be healthy at the end of the season.”

Overlooked underdogs?

A lot of teams have better betting odds of winning the Larry O’Brien Trophy two years after Denver won its first NBA championship, but Aaron Gordon said the Nuggets are accustomed to disrespect.

“I mean, that’s how it was our championship run, too,” Gordon said.

Snow forces Rockies to postpone Friday's game vs. Nationals, move it to Sunday

DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Rockies have postponed Friday's game against the Washington Nationals because of rain and snow in the Denver area.

The game will be made up on Sunday as part of a split doubleheader, with the first game at 1:10 p.m. MT and the second at 6:10 p.m. The Rockies also said that Saturday's game has been moved one hour later to 2:10 p.m.

The forecast in Denver improves throughout the weekend, with sunny skies and temperatures in the 60s by Sunday.

The Rockies and Nationals probably won't mind a day of rest. Colorado is off to a 3-15 start this season and recently fired hitting coach Hensley Meulens, replacing him with Clint Hurdle.

Washington has a 7-12 record and is coming off two straight losses to the Pittsburgh Pirates.