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Avalanche crush Golden Knights in first game without Rantanen: 3 takeaways

NHL: OCT 25 Avalanche at Golden Knights

LAS VEGAS, NV - OCTOBER 25: Colorado Avalanche left wing Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (41) celebrates after scoring a goal against the Vegas Golden Knights during a regular season game Friday, Oct. 25, 2019, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by: Marc Sanchez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Colorado Avalanche are sending a pretty strong message to the rest of the Western Conference -- and the league as a whole -- in the first month of the season.

That message: All of the preseason hype was accurate.

They played their first game without star forward Mikko Rantanen on Friday night and never missed a beat in a complete demolition of the Vegas Golden Knights, rolling to a 6-1 win that was as one-sided as any game in the NHL this season. It was already the third time this season Colorado has scored at least six goals in a single game, while they owned a commanding 40-26 edge on the shot chart.

What all stood out?

1. Nathan MacKinnon’s point streak continues. With two assists on Friday, MacKinnon was able to extend his points streak to 10 consecutive games to open the season. He officially extended it with a helper on Cale Makar’s first career regular season goal, then added another helper on Nazem Kadri’s power play goal. MacKinnon already has 14 points in the Avalanche’s first 10 games this season and continues to be a dominant force in the middle of their lineup. Just for comparisons sake he only had five points through the first 10 games in 2017-18 (when he finished with 97 points in 74 games) and 15 points a year ago (when he finished with 99 points in 82 games.

2. The improved depth is a game changer. With MacKinnon, Rantanen, and Landeskog the Avalanche have had the most dominant top line in the league for a couple of years now, but one line can only take a team so far. They needed help around them, and the Avalanche addressed that over the summer. Their second line on Friday featured all new additions with Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, and Joonas Donskoi, and all have already made significant contributions this season. Kadri alone scored two goals on Friday. That has allowed everyone else to get pushed down into more suitable roles and created a far more balanced lineup.

3. Cale Makar already looks like a star. With Tyson Barrie now in Toronto the Avalanche have turned a lot of their blue line over to the youngsters Makar and Sam Girard. Makar has been spectacular this year and was especially dominant on Friday. He scored a goal -- giving him nine points in 10 games -- and helped the Avalanche control close to 70 percent of the total shot attempts when he was on the ice. He figures to be a player in the Rookie of the Year race all season and is a huge addition to an already great core.

Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.