The Avalanche Are Dreaming Big, and Everyone Else Is Losing Sleep

We’re living in a era of superlatives. Everything is the first time something has ever happened, or the best something has ever been. That hyperbole starts to lose its luster a little when applied as liberally as it is today. When it’s the first time in history a player HAS EVER HAS A STAT LINE LIKE THIS (that also happens to be made up of six different stats), or when Arby’s is purporting the BEST SANDWICH YOU’VE EVER EATEN, or when the latest social media meteorite tells you you’re missing out on the COOLEST THING EVER, you know we’ve jumped the shark a little bit.

It also tends to make the truly spectacular moments of “never-before” harder to sort out from the latest and apparently MOST SPECTACULAR VERSION of the Beef & Cheddar.

There are also certain comparisons, in sports and everywhere else, you should be careful making, mostly because they tend to age like unrefrigerated shrimp. But every now and then a team starts a season so hot you start whispering things to yourself you would absolutely never say out loud at a bar, even the DNVR Bar, because people would think you were either drunk, delusional, or suffering from a serious deficiency of irony. Do they make irony supplements? But whisper I might, and not even at the bar. The 2025-26 Colorado Avalanche are up to things this season that very few NHL teams have ever dreamt of, and those dreams are giving other teams nightmares in short order.

Last Sunday night, and 19 games into the season, The Avs had already crossed over the 30-point plateau with a win over the Islanders. That figure put them at the top of the league, points-wise, even with several other teams playing more games thus far. But it’s not just a normal hot streak the Avs are on, hitting that 30-point mark so quickly is the kind of stuff you read about when studying those late-70’s Montreal Canadiens legends (winning four cups in a row), or with squads such as the Gretzky Oilers back in the day.

While there has been a single loss for the Avs in these (now 20) games, plus a few OT and SO dings, this is the fastest start for the club in franchise history, eclipsing some pretty impressive seasons, including their two President’s Trophy-winning years. The team is not only ferocious on both ends of the ice, but is blessed with a depth that is helping them get past injuries that have often derailed seasons past (koff, Nichushkin). They team hasn’t looked this stacked top to bottom since the days of names like Sakic, Forsberg, Roy, Foote, and even Bourque. And somehow, this year’s squad is even outpacing those teams of Avalanche legend… At least thus far.

After a needed rest this week, the team took the ice again against the OTHER NY squad on Thursday night, handing it to the Rangers decisively in a 6-3 decision with MacKinnon, Makar, and Nećas each tacking another three points onto their already-incredible seasons. With the team racking up 33 points in their first 20 games, they are on pace to notch 135 points this season, which would tie the single-season record the Boston Bruins set three years ago.

While regular season points do not always portend postseason successes – the Avs two President’s Trophies do not coincide with their Cup-winning seasons, nor did those ’22-’23 Bruins bring home the championship – they do tend to be a strong marker for these Avalanche as to how the playoffs could run. Colorado’s two highest point-total seasons also happen to align with two of their three Stanley Cups – 118 points in 2000-01, and 119 points in 2021-22.

While no one is saying this level of output will hold for another 62 games, the Avalanche have built what Rudo correctly refers to as “a machine”. They are tough and competitive from lines 1-4, with the top line being possibly the league’s most-lethal. Their defense is only offensive in the best of senses, with several players capable of contributing on the scoring end, but also making less mental errors than the D’s of years past, and flexing to shut down several potent offensive styles. The goaltending is so solid as to have a skosh of a battle going on between two gents who can absolutely stand on their heads, similar to the goalie platoon of those late-70’s Canadiens.

It’s heady stuff, starting a season as if shot from a cannon. There’s a ton of hockey still to play, and all sorts of things can change in a long campaign. But out of the gates, these Avalanche are proving to be a real nightmare for everyone else in the league except Avs fans. Colorado’s hockey fanbase? They are daring to dream.