First, a look at the season preview:
And this is more like it. The Avs start the season with 4 straight wins and even though we then drop 5 in a row, the team recovers to win 5 straight to end the month, including a pair of shutouts on the road, back to back, against San Jose (4-0) and Washington (6-0).
There is a lot of season ahead but at least it's a promising start.
Especially since some of the finest performances have come from our youngest players. Second year C
James Nelson is leading the team in goals and points. Rookies
Matthew Watts and
Travis LaFreniere are both playing well so far. And most impressively,
Milo Holland, the Avs first round draft pick in 2022, who had a decent if unspectacular rookie campaign and then was very disappointing last season, is probably the best non-Goalie on the club thus far.
Speaking of Goalies, both of ours are off to good starts.
Players off to the worst start, at least in terms of average Game Rating, are LW
David Williams (56), who admittedly was re-called from the AHL mid-month, veteran LD
Robin Larsson (57) (as expected), second year RD
Mirza Begovic (58) in just 7 games, and veteran RW
Aleksandr Yermolayev (60).
It's a start, anyway. And not a bad one.