After all that noise, Avalanche tied for first in Western Conference

The Colorado Avalanche woke up on Wednesday morning tied for first in the entire Western Conference.

For a season filled with noise, it’s a great place for the 2022 Stanley Cup champions to be.

Colorado has 51 points, tied with the Vancouver Canucks at the top. They lead the Central Division, with both Winnipeg (50 points) and Dallas (48 points) lurking.

It seems like folks expect perfection out of this squad — and for good reason.

Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen are three of the 10 best players in the world. Valeri Nichushkin is on an absolute tear after mysteriously missing five playoff games a season ago. And despite some struggles, Alexandar Georgiev became the first goalie in the NHL to reach 20 wins last night. The Avs took down the Islanders 5-4 in overtime.

There was the 7-0 loss to Vegas and 8-2 defeat by the Blues in November that had folks worried. There was the scary injury to Artturi Lehkonen. Heck, there was the bizarre beef between Rantanen and Lehkonen’s father. And there was Samuel Girard needing to step away for a stretch to focus on his mental and physical health.

But somehow, they’ve overcome it all to be in this position on January 3. At 24-11-3, the Avs are in a good spot.

Sure, it’d be nice if backup goalie Pavel Francouz and captain Gabriel Landeskog weren’t out for the year, but Colorado seems to be overcoming their absences for now. Ivan Prosvetov has done a nice job in relief of Georgiev and in some spot starts, and Landeskog is now around the team more and more. Heck, there’s a small chance he could still return for the playoffs.

Despite some in Denver pushing the panic button every time this team loses, here they are. And that’s as a top contender to win their second championship in three seasons.

A long journey still awaits, but after a bumpy start, things are on the right track.

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