DALLAS – An old friend kissed your Avs goodbye. And it hurt like the end of an era.

With a hat trick that ran Colorado out of the NHL playoffs, Mikko “Moose” Rantanen dropped a truth bomb on a chronically underachieving hockey team:

After a Game 7 they let slip away, the Avs can no longer go on this way.

If Colorado doesn’t fire coach Jared Bednar after this 4-2 loss to Dallas, the most epic postseason collapse of way too many disappointments that bear his fingerprints, then maybe team execs Joe Sakic and Chris MacFarland are OK with wasting the Hall of Fame primes of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar.

“I’m in shock, to be honest,” MacKinnon said Saturday.

When MacKinnon scored on the first shift of the third period, Colorado took a 2-0 lead with 19 minutes, 29 seconds remaining in a win-or-go-home game. The hockey barn in Dallas was filled to the brim with dread and so depressingly quiet that the only sound heard in American Airlines Center was this chant: Let’s go Av-a-lanche!

“I felt like we were in complete control of the game,” MacKinnon said.

And then Rantanen happened.

The star forward that Colorado decided to trade rather than pay in January came back to haunt his old team, leading a furious Dallas rally with two no-freakin’-way goals, plus an empty-netter in the finals seconds to bury the Avalanche.

Rantanen! Foiled again!

And again … and again.

“They’re my brothers. I still love every one of them,” Rantanen said during a postgame interview with ESPN. “Obviously, we were enemies in this series on the ice, but they are my dear friends off the ice. I love every one of them.”

Sometimes it takes one you love to deliver the news nobody wants to hear.

Dallas coach Pete DeBoer is now a perfect 9-0 when the chips are down and the stakes are high in Game 7.

And Bednar now owns an 0-4 career record in playoff series against DeBoer, who has eliminated Colorado two years in a row.

“I think about it, it’s nine years,” said Bednar, who replaced Patrick Roy as the team’s coach way back in 2016.

Bednar knows MacFarland revamped the roster, giving him the players to win a championship this year. And Bednar fell short in the playoffs. Again.

“This is a good team, a really good team,” Bednar said. “Like 2021, we were good. We got bounced out (by Las Vegas, coached by DeBoer). In ‘22, we were obviously really good (and won it all). This is the best team we’ve had since.”

In three of their four losses in this series, Colorado had a lead in the third period and couldn’t hold it.

With a Stanley Cup from three years ago to its credit, the Avalanche's championship DNA is slip sliding away.

If you are what you do, these Avs are chokers.

Know what else really stings?

Seeing Dallas captain Jamie Benn smile like the thief of Colorado’s broken heart.

Seven games is seven too many to watch Benn be the lowdown, dirtiest cowboy in the entire Lone Star state.

How do I put this politely?

Benn is a menace to the sport. Hockey is a game of honor. And he has none. There’s a “C” on his chest and balderdash in Benn’s heart.

In the first period, Benn got assessed a double minor for attempting dentistry without anesthesia on Avs forward Val Nichushkin.

With Nichushkin buzzing the crease, Benn responded by giving a double-fisted whack with his stick to Nichushkin’s face.

The call was high-sticking, although on the street, it would be called assault and battery.

The Avs, however, were unable to make Benn pay for his sin against common decency, failing to cash on four minutes of power play.

That was a problem for Colorado throughout this series. The Avs only scored three times in 22 opportunities with a man advantage.

Bad execution? Yes.

Poor coaching? Indeed.

Dallas played the entire season without their top goal-scorer (Jason Robertson) and best defenseman (Miro Heiskanen), both out with injuries.

When it was over, Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon sat at his locker, more dazed than angry, looking as if he had been run over by a Moose.

“They were missing their best D-man and maybe their best forward, and we still couldn’t beat them,” MacKinnon said.

Down the hallway from where the Avalanche prematurely backed their bags for the summer yet another time, loudspeakers in the Dallas locker room rocked with Post Malone and Blake Shelton singing “Pour Me a Drink.”

The Avs cannot go on this way.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” MacKinnon said.

Kiss these Avs goodbye.

What comes next?

“No idea,” Bednar said.

It’s the end of an era. The mentality and approach of this team needs a complete reset.

And it begins with a new coach.

If they don't hire David Carle away from the University of Denver, the Avs are doing it wrong.