Geoff Burke – USA TODAY Sports
The Colorado Avalanche are off to an incredibly impressive 5-0 start to the 2013-14 season, as first-year head coach Patrick Roy continues to get great results from a team that finished near the bottom of the league last season. The Avalanche defeated a skilled Washington Capitals team on Saturday night, getting yet another great outing from goaltender Semyon Varlamov. In his four wins this season, Varlamov has a 1.00 goals-against average, and was perhaps one of the most motivated players on the ice on Saturday as he faced his former team.
Early on, it looks like Avalanche definitely made the right call in drafting Nathan MacKinnon first overall, and the 18-year old forward netted his first career goal on Saturday. He now has six points in five games, thriving while playing alongside Jamie McGinn and P.A. Parenteau. The Avalanche now have three signature wins they can hang their hats on, as they defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins in their two games prior to beating the Capitals. When a season-opening 6-1 romp over the Anaheim Ducks is factored in, four of the five wins for Colorado this season have come against teams that made the playoffs last spring. Oh, and those last three wins all came on the road – not bad for a team that only won four road games last season. It was expected that Roy’s hire would have a positive impact on the team and especially the goaltending, but few could have predicted results would be this positive or happen this fast.
Related: Colorado Avalanche: Goaltending Real Reason Behind Early Success
Jonathan Katje is an NHL featured columnist for Rant Sports. You can follow him on Twitter or add him to your circles on Google Plus.
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