The Colorado Avalanche are off to a 12-1 start

The Colorado Avalanche are off to a ridiculously hot start that has made them a Stanley Cup favorite. It’s early in the season but they seem to do everything right. Last Saturday they beat the Montreal Canadiens to earn their sixth straight win, an incredible feat for what’s clearly a team to watch and fear this season.

What’s most impressive about their streak is that it is their second six-game winning streak of the season, which means that their 12 wins have been made up of six-game winning streaks with just one loss in the middle. This is the best start for the Avalanche in their 18 seasons in Colorado.

Matt Duchene leads the team with 14 points and nine goals. Nathan MacKinnon, the number one pick in this year’s draft, has a team-best seven assists and Semyon Varlamov has a .944 save percentage. As a team, the Avalanche average 3.2 goals per game (sixth in the NHL), lead the league allowing just 1.5 goals per game, rank 16th with a 19.0 power play percentage and average an NHL-best 90.9 penalty kill percentage.

The key to their success has been taking care of business one game at at time. The Avalanche are focused on winning the next game and then the game after, a mentality that could very well lead to a Stanley Cup appearance.