Perhaps the reason many people make similar conclusions about Colorado is because those conclusions appear to be the most logical explanation for current events.

I will go on record that my pre-season prediction for Colorado (14th in the west) puts them below what I expect today is their likely finish. That said, I bet its closer to their final finish than their current position in the standings – significantly closer.

I’m not sure why people are killing Mirtle and the naysayers, except that it’s sort of fun to do it and it’s a rally-around-the-team thing. Let’s be honest – where did most of us think the Avs would end up? I don’t know about 15th in the West, but I sure wasn’t thinking playoffs. Did the Roundtable call for predictions? It’s time to show our cards, too. It’s one thing to say that none of us picked the Avs 1st or 2nd, but it’s quite another to say “I picked them to make the playoffs.” Who here said that? If you did, speak up and get your (still premature) congratulations.

What the doubters haven’t seen is every minute of every game like we have. They haven’t seen the almost immediate change in the style of play that turned this team from a team that was no fun to watch last year into a team that’s actually a joy to watch. They skate hard and fast. They finish checks. They attack the puck when they don’t have it and actually cause turnovers. Instead of making Lappy and Cody Mc and Stewart do all the fighting for them, they have team toughness, sticking up for one another when they didn’t do that so much in the past. It’s fun to watch young guys who don’t know or don’t care that they’re not supposed to be so good – O’Reilly is their best rookie so far, and he seems clueless that he shouldn’t be winning most of his faceoffs and playing big minutes on the PK and causing turnovers in the neutral zone that lead to goals.

It’s fun to watch because there’s a big sense of “who the hell are these guys?” The new guys are a breath of fresh air, and some veterans have been rejuvenated – especially Scott Hannan, in his new role as a 1 or 2 defenseman who’s actually been close to worth $4.5/year. Darcy Tucker’s looked like a new man, Cumiskey’s playing much better and providing the sort of threat we haven’t had since JML’s early days, and even Brian Willsie has contributed the past couple of games.

I get the “smoke and mirrors” thing because, quite frankly, we haven’t been dominating most of the games (although we’ve always been competitive.) For me, there have been a lot of “how the fuck did that point blank shot not go in?” “Look, Andy just saved a sure goal with his noggin!” and “What the hell is Darcy Tucker doing scoring a goal?” moments so far.

Whatever happens the rest of this season, I think this team will always be fun to watch, because they compete, no matter what. What a refresher to watch and know that you can be pleasantly surprised instead of knowing that the team is going to lose without really caring about it, as happened too often last season.

The early success means 22 points in the bank – can’t ever lose them, they’re not going anywhere. It’s a month ahead of when they did it last season, which is pretty amazing when you consider the turnover in personnel, the road games, and injuries.

I’m not ready to proclaim that we’ll make the playoffs quite yet, but even if we don’t, it seems like this team will be enjoyable to watch and will try hard, and that’s all we can ask for at this point.