It wasn’t a handshake line at the end of this remarkable seven-game series for Mikko Rantanen. It was a hug line.

Rantanen won a Stanley Cup with the Avalanche. He grew up and matured into a superstar with the Avalanche. While he's officially in a new phase of his career, you'll forgive him for feeling a little bittersweet about burying guys he used to enter grueling hockey battles with all the time. You don't just forget those kinds of memories.