PITTSBURGH — For a team that swept its four-game homestand to begin the season, this six-game road stretch is perfect timing for the Avalanche. Following Monday’s 6-3 victory at the Washington Capitals, the Avs flew here, where they’ll face the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday in a nationally televised game (NBCSN).
Team bonding figures to be in full force before Colorado lands in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Thursday, where they’ll prepare for a back-to-back stretch against Florida Panthers on Friday and Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. The trip concludes Monday at St. Louis, the defending Stanley Cup champion, although the Avs will have two days in Denver to prepare for the sixth straight road game on Oct. 25 in Las Vegas.
Colorado had eight new full-time faces in Monday’s lineup, and are carrying 10 on the 23-man roster. Perfect timing to play a bunch of games outside Denver.
“You always like having these long road trips to start the year, especially with a bunch of new players on the team,” Avs left wing and team captain Gabe Landeskog said. “This early in the season is a great time for guys to get to know each other. I’ve always said it: You win at home, yeah, it’s important, but you win on the road and it’s team-building — it’s really good for morale.”
Avs defenseman Ian Cole, a two-time Stanley Cup winner with Pittsburgh, made his season debut Monday at Washington. He had a team-best plus-3 rating, suggesting his double offseason hip surgeries were a success.
Cole said a long road trip to begin the year is a benefit — but only if you play well and win.
“As a team, it certainly can galvanize a team and brings guys together,” Cole said. “It’s something we look forward to getting on the road. We enjoy each other’s company so it’s great to get out on the road.”
Colorado’s 5-0 start to the season is second-best in club history; the 2013-14 team began 6-0. Landeskog was 20 at the time, the youngest captain in the NHL in just his third year in the league.
Colorado went 16-25-7 in the lockout-shortened season of 2012-13 to obtain the first pick in the 2013 draft. The Avs selected star Nathan MacKinnon.
MacKinnon, Landeskog and defenseman Erik Johnson are the only remaining Avs from the 2013-14 squad that won the Central Division with 112 points, second-most in the Western Conference.
“Back then, it was different,” Landeskog said of then and now. “Different feeling going into it. We had finished 30th in the league and ended up drafting Nate before that year, his first year. So we were really underdogs that year. This year, we have expectations, which has been talked about plenty. It’s a different group and although we’re still finding ways to win hockey games, I know we have a lot more to give.”
High praise. NHL Tonight’s Kevin Weekes was high on the Avs before Monday’s game. Afterward, Colorado was the only team in the league without a regulation or overtime loss.
“The Vegas Golden Knights are the class of the Western Conference, there’s no question about it. San Jose, if they get their game together, they can be there. But I feel like Colorado is in that grouping,” Weekes said before the Avs defeated the Caps. “Colorado right now, with the youth, with the skill, with their intensity, the way that they play and the fact that they have gotten deeper with (Andre) Burakovsky, with a (Joonas) Donskoi, with (Pierre-Edouard) Bellemare, now with (Nazem) Kadri, it makes them a lot tougher to deal with for opposing teams.”
Footnote. Rookie Cale Makar (six assists) has a point in each game, the first Avs defenseman in club history to begin the season on a five-game points streak.
