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Let’s rave about Rantanen

Even with a 2-1 OT win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday, the Colorado Avalanche remain easily the worst team in the NHL.

They have 34 standings point while only one team (the unevenly tanking Coyotes) is even under 50 with 47. Their -77 goal differential is worse than the next two worst team differentials combined.

Oh yeah, there’s also a strong chance that they’ll trade two of their biggest names in Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog.

Yep, times are grim ... but barring him being an ill-advised add-in to a potential trade, it seems reasonably safe to assume that Mikko Rantanen is a part of this team’s future. And that’s looking like a promising thing.

Last night marked a milestone for the 20-year-old, as he scored his first career overtime game-winner, with a great assist by Duchene.

It’s the second game-winner of his season and 12th goal overall. No one’s going to confuse Rantanen with a Calder finalist like Auston Matthews, but he’s shown serious flashes of brilliance on a team whose visions have been overwhelmingly dismal.

So, Avalanche fans who need to think happy thoughts have an obvious place to go to.

As long as Joe Sakic doesn’t do something silly.