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Morning Flurries: Avalanche can’t lose in Colorado and NHL is set to pay back escrow

A big shutout win helps the Avalanche continue their dominance at home

By Tom Hunter

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NHL: Dallas Stars at Colorado Avalanche Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Another home game, another win for the Colorado Avalanche. Last night’s 3-0 victory over the Dallas Stars brings the team’s record to 7-1-0 at the Pepsi Center this season. If you missed the game, here is a full recap.

The Avs are fun to watch again and a major reason for that is the emergence of Nathan MacKinnon as one of the elite forwards in the NHL. MacKinnon is now on pace for 103 points this season and he leads the league in points over the last month of the season. Here is a great piece about how MacKinnon is turning from a star into a superstar.

Not only is MacKinnon leading the Avalanche, but he’s doing it while achieving feats not seen in this organization since Joe Sakic was on the ice.

Around the Hockey World

Gary Bettman is claiming that revenue is up league-wide and as a result, the players are set to get a 3% return on the escrow that was withheld from their paychecks last season.

When bragging about the economic health of his league, Bettman mentioned that this year’s revenue forecasts are “between $4.5-billion and $5-billion”, which seems high given that $4.5 billion would mean a 7% rate of organic growth. If his forecasts are accurate, here’s a look at what next year’s salary cap could look like:

From Jame Mirtle of The Athletic

If the salary cap gets a huge boost, suddenly the Avs cap space becomes a lot less valuable.

Even though they missed out on Matt Duchene, it looks like the Columbus Blue Jackets are still working hard on finding a center, with Ryan Murray being the key piece they’re shopping. Here’s the problem - Ryan Murray isn’t actually any good. That said, we all know NHL GMs haven’t been afraid to trade good forwards for below average defenders in the past.