The Colorado Avalanche’s top line has to slow down at some point, right?
A cold streak certainly didn’t begin on Monday night, as the dominant trio of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Gabriel Landeskog powered a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.
MacKinnon was the subject of this fawning piece on Saturday, and he did his part by extending his season-opening point streak to nine games (now 15 points), as he collected a primary assist. His wingers were the bigger stars on this night, however. For one thing Rantanen extended his own point streak with two goals, which actually places him one ahead of MacKinnon for the team lead. MacKinnon and Rantanen continue to make history for the Avalanche franchise:
Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanan became the first set of teammates in @Avalanche /Nordiques franchise history to open a season with a simultaneous point streak of 9 games played. #NHLStats pic.twitter.com/tJVoMCUKha
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) October 23, 2018
[MORE: Rantanen’s becoming a “driving force” for Avs.]
Avs captain Landeskog is a few strides behind those two as far as season totals go (“just” 10 points in eight games), yet he’s been red-hot lately. The hearty Swede now has a four-game goal streak (seven tallies) and five-game point streak (10 points) going after collecting a breakaway tally and an assist in this one.
The Avalanche didn’t need much more from their non-stars to win against the Flyers, with a nice Matt Nieto goal being the only tally that wasn’t generated by one of Landeskog, MacKinnon, or Rantanen.
Colorado is now on a three-game winning streak, bumping its record to 6-1-2.
One of the impressive things about this outstanding start is that the Avalanche haven’t even really had many opportunities to leverage what can potentially be the best home-ice advantage in the NHL: that mile-high elevation.
Only three of the Avalanche’s first nine games have come at home, and this victory against Philly concludes a highly successful (3-0-1) four-game road trip against East teams.
The Avalanche’s early road challenges aren’t over yet, as you can see from their next month of work:
Wed, Oct 24 - vs Tampa Bay
Fri, Oct 26 - vs Ottawa
Sat, Oct 27 - @Minnesota
Thu, Nov 1 - @Calgary
Fri, Nov 2 - @Vancouver
Wed, Nov 7 - vs Nashville
Fri, Nov 9 - @Winnipeg
Sun, Nov 11 - @Edmonton
Wed, Nov 14 - vs Boston
Fri, Nov 16 - vs Washington
Sun, Nov 18 - @Anaheim
Wed, Nov 21 - @Los Angeles
Fri, Nov 23 - @Arizona
As you can see, eight of the Avalanche’s next 13 games are on the road. That’s not the sort of stretch that is so heavily weighted against Colorado as to throw things out of balance by itself, but it’s still another test for a team some expected to hit the wall after last season’s breakthrough.
If the Avalanche enter December with a strong record, then look out, particularly if that top line’s maintaining even a portion of this red-hot chemistry.
MORE: Your 2018-19 NHL on NBC TV schedule
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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.