What We Learned: How will Stars win affect Avs' future?

"I have a hard time believing that there's any team that's that much better than Colorado out there left."

That's Dallas Stars goalie Jake Oettinger minutes after defeating the Colorado Avalanche in a thrilling Game 7 that sent his team to the second round and ended the Avs' postseason run incredibly prematurely.

Surely, having just watched the Blues and Jets beat up on each other for seven games without the same level of intensity or obvious quality to either team, it already feels like the second-round matchup is the Stars' to lose. Maybe you can see a path forward for the underdog, if circumstances align just so, but come on. There was never really a universe where the winner of Dallas/Colorado was going to be something other than the heavy favorite in the second round.

It took two histori