Colorado Avalanche Fast out of the Gate, but Stretch Run Will Determine Season

The Colorado Avalanche are catching a lot of people by surprise as the season gets out of the gates.

In fact, the last time the Colorado Avalanche finished as low as they did in the Western Conference, the following year saw them tearing out of the gates very similarly to this.

Even last season the Avalanche started off the season very well and found themselves atop not only the Northwest Division, but the whole of the Western Conference.

What is going to have to be different about this Avalanche team than the previous two does not lie in all of the excitement that happens towards the start of the season; it will lie in the last 20 games of the season that every team needs to grind out.

For the past two seasons, it hasn't been the first half of the season that has been the issue for the Colorado Avalanche, it has been pretty much everything after the All-Star break.

We are all familiar with the way the Avalanche collapsed last season, losing 28 of their last 32 games, which not only pushed them well out of playoff contention, it buried them in the standings.

During the 2009-2010 season, the Avalanche were much more respectable in the second half of the season, but they still ended up with far fewer wins than in the first half of the year.

This was also made worse by the crazy league scheduling put in place as a result of the 2010 Winter Olympics from that season.

With the Avalanche once again off to a hot start, both the fans and the team need to be mindful of the fact that while things are much improved at the moment, the success of this season won't be determined until April.

The Avalanche are currently seeing a lot of similar things happening from the recent past.

They are off to a start that absolutely nobody expected them to have, they are scoring a lot of goals, they are giving up a lot of shots but are getting insanely good goaltending from Semyon Varlamov.

There is no doubt that the defense has been good, but it will make it difficult on any goalie to have to face 30 to 40 shots every single game.

The best thing that the Avalanche fans can hope for is that the team recognizes the similarities in what is happening now, but is able to make the necessary preparations to avoid the second half slow down that we have seen the last two years.