DENVER — Jared Bednar’s job on the bench appears perfectly safe after the Colorado Avalanche were ousted in the early rounds yet again.

General manager Chris MacFarland gave Bednar a vote of confidence Tuesday — “100% confident Jared’s our head coach,” MacFarland exclaimed in a deconstruct-what-went-sideways news conference.

This first-round playoff exit to the Dallas Stars, though, was particularly tough to swallow for MacFarland and team president/Hall of Famer Joe Sakic. Not just because former Avalanche forward turned Stars series saver Mikko Rantanen was the one to send them packing with a hat trick in Game 7. It was more because the front office firmly believed they had assembled a team that could win another Stanley Cup title, just like they did in 2022.

“This one stings. I’m not going to lie to you,” Sakic said. “We knew we had the team to do it. We feel like this year’s team was on that (2022) level. So that’s why this one’s going to sting. It’s going to sting a little longer than other years.

“We’ll regroup. Great players here, great character. They want to win and we’re going to find a way next year to be in the situation again and try and compete for the Cup.”

One change the Avalanche made in the aftermath of the Dallas loss was letting go of assistant coach Ray Bennett, who oversaw the power play. The Avalanche were 3 of 22 with the man advantage against the Stars.

“They (Stars) did everything they needed to be dangerous and scored (in) key moments of the game,” Sakic said. “We just didn’t have it at the right time. So at the end of the day, when you look at it all, that was the difference.”

The Avalanche have been to the postseason eight straight years under Bednar, who’s the winningest coach in franchise history. During that stretch, they’ve only made it past the second round when they won it all in 2022.

“I went through it as a player as well. Sometimes things just aren’t going to go your way,” Sakic said of a series. “We just missed on some opportunities and we didn’t capitalize. But we’ll get back at this again next year.”

Sakic said he was involved in the deal that sent Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes on Jan. 24, in a transaction that brought Martin Necas and Jack Drury to Colorado. Rantanen was then sent by Carolina to Dallas on March 7 at the trade deadline.

Rantanen tormented the Avalanche in the series — five goals, seven assists — and will continue to do so for years to come after agreeing to an eight-year, $96 million contract.

“What’s done is done. That happened. We move forward,” Sakic said. “We were very confident with the group we have here. Listen, we had a really good team here. … It was a lot deeper, a lot stronger than it was to start the year or Christmastime. We didn’t get it done.”

Through all the squandered third-period leads in the series, Colorado was still 6:14 away from advancing — before Rantanen tied it up.

“Everybody’s frustrated,” Sakic said. “Everybody’s disappointed, just because we felt we were this close to moving on.”

Now, some decisions. Forwards Jonathan Drouin, Joel Kiviranta, Jimmy Vesey and Brock Nelson along with defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Erik Johnson are set to be free agents. Many of those players — including Vesey, who did not play in the postsesson, and Johnson, who only played twice — were trade deadline acquisitions by Colorado.

MacFarland isn’t opposed to running it back, especially with a nucleus of Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Devon Toews, along with the return of their captain, Gabriel Landeskog.

Landeskog made it back for Game 3 after not playing in an NHL game for nearly three years. He’s been sidelined by a chronically injured right knee since helping the Avalanche to the 2022 title. Showing no signs of rust, Landeskog had one goal and three assists over five playoff games.

“Listen, nobody knew if he would be able to come back, not even himself,” Sakic said. “To come back the way he did, it was pretty inspiring.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

TORONTO — Anthony Stolarz was smiling and in the building. The Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender had taken a blow to the head, vomited on the bench and left Scotiabank Arena on a stretcher to be evaluated in a hospital Monday night.

His presence at Toronto’s practice facility in the city’s west end Tuesday morning was a welcome sign. Whether or not Stolarz will play when the team’s best-of-seven playoff series resumes Wednesday night is up in the air.

Coach Craig Berube didn’t rule out his starting goalie for Game 2 of the Leafs’ second-round matchup against the Florida Panthers after Stolarz was on the receiving end of an elbow from Sam Bennett in the opener.

“He’s doing well,” said Berube, whose group earned a 5-4 victory Monday to take a 1-0 lead in a matchup of Atlantic Division rivals. “He’s here, doing good.”

That’s about all the information the veteran head coach was willing to share. As to whether or not the 31-year-old will be available to play Wednesday? “We’ll see,” Berube said. “Don’t know that yet.” As to whether or not the veteran suffered a concussion, or not, Berube added, “don’t know that either.”

Stolarz, who also took a shot off the mask early in Game 1, was knocked to the ice in the second period by Bennett but stayed in the action for a few minutes. He eventually left after being sick during a TV timeout.

“Tough seeing your starting goaltender go down,” Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe said.

No stranger to entering a playoff series, backup Joseph Woll stopped 17 of 20 shots in relief as Toronto held on after building a 4-1 lead. The 26-year-old won Games 5 and 6 of last spring’s first-round loss to the Boston Bruins, but was unable to go in the finale because of a back injury.

Woll, who played long stretches this season, including when Stolarz was out with a knee issue, also entered Toronto’s second-round defeat to Florida in 2023, winning Game 4 to stave off elimination before a 40-save performance in a 3-2 overtime loss that sent the Panthers to the Eastern Conference final.

“We’ve got all the confidence in him,” McCabe said. “Tough spot, but he did an awesome job.”

Berube said his team will have to stay disciplined and not seek retribution on Bennett that could result in power plays for the Panthers.

Seventh on the NHL’s penalty minutes list, however, Berube said the situation would have been handled differently during his playing days.

“Somebody would have done something right away,” he said with a smile. “Probably me, if I was out there.”

Stolarz, in his first season with the Maple Leafs, is a regular playoff starter for the first time in his career. He spent last season with the Panthers, backing up Sergei Bobrovsky, as Florida raced to its first Stanley Cup in franchise history. He is one of three Maple Leafs on this current roster who also was with Florida last season, including Steven Lorentz and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

St. Louis Blues forward Dylan Holloway underwent surgery for an undisclosed injury and is expected to be able to play at the start of the 2025-26 season. The news about veteran defenseman Torey Krug was not as positive.

General manager Doug Armstrong held his end-of-season news conference on Tuesday and addressed a variety of subjects, including the status of the two players. The Blues lost the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs to the Winnipeg Jets in seven games.

Holloway, 23, last played on April 3 in the Blues’ 5-4 overtime victory against the Penguins. He was hit by Rutger McGroarty of Pittsburgh and came out of the game early.

All the team ever said about the injury was that he was on a week-to-week timeline. Holloway missed all seven playoff games and the final five of the regular season.

Holloway was the 14th overall pick of the 2020 NHL draft by the Oilers. He spent two seasons in Edmonton, then signed a two-year, $4.58 million deal with the Blues as a restricted free agent before the 2024-25 season.

In 77 games with the Blues, he was second on the team in goals with 26 and added 37 assists. He was third in points with 63.

The veteran Krug, 34, played four seasons with the Blues following nine with the Boston Bruins. He missed the entire 2024-25 season after undergoing surgery last September to address what were called prearthritic changes to his left ankle.

“I don’t really think there’s much uncertainty with Torey. I talked to him, he was at the rink the other day,” Armstrong said. “He’s just getting almost normal to day-to-day living with his ankle. So I’m not expecting him to play again. He’s hoping I’m wrong and I’m hoping I’m wrong, and he’s pushing. But the surgery he had, it was very, very invasive.”

Krug has 483 points (89 goals, 394 assists) in 778 career games in the regular season. Undrafted, he was selected to the NHL All-Rookie team in 2014.

He added 57 points in 82 playoff games.

The Blues signed him as a free agent on Oct. 9, 2020.