Sometimes these little road trips to a fun place like Southern California can get teams off track or off focus. But for the Avalanche, this trip to SoCal was all business.

The Avs completed a quick two-game sweep on back-to-back nights against the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks, reminding the rest of the West that they are still the best.

In both games, Colorado jumped out to 2-0 leads in the first period, which was imperative after allowing the Wild and Blackhawks to score first in their last two games.

At Crypto.com Arena on Monday night, the action got started early when Nathan MacKinnon put home his league-leading 41st goal of the season. Then later in the 1st period, captain Gabriel Landeskog scored his 8th goal of the year to put the Avs up 2-0.

Los Angeles would get one back from Brandt Clarke toward the end of the period and then they sort of dominated the 2nd period, tying the game up at 2-2 heading into the 3rd.

But the Avs found their game again in that final frame, and ended up taking a late 3-2 lead on Devon Toews 2nd goal of the year at 15:05. Martin Necas would add an empty netter in the dying seconds to give the Avs the huge 4-2 win.

It was a game that I honestly saw the Avs winning coming into it, as the Kings have been struggling a bit as of late. In fact, they had just fired their head coach Jim Hiller on Sunday. So this was interim head coach D.J. Smith’s first game in charge of the Kings. L.A. honestly held their own against the Avs for most of the game, but with the way Nathan MacKinnon was leading the charge in this game, they were eventually going to break down.

So after that win, I had different expectations as the Avs went into Anaheim on Tuesday. It’s not that I expected them to lose or come out flat, it’s just that I wouldn’t have been surprised if Anaheim found a way to win, because that’s just what that team has been doing lately.

On Sunday night, Anaheim came back and defeated the Calgary Flames to give their 5th win in a row and an impressive record of 12-2-0 in their last 14 games. Last week, they came back from down multiple goals in three straight games. On the season they have come back from multiple goals an NHL record tying 9 times.

So, even with the Avs jumping out to a quick 2-0 lead again, I wasn’t just assuming they would cruise to a victory like they ended up doing.

After getting outshot pretty handily the first ten minutes or so, Colorado dominated the rest of the 1st period. Cale Makar scored his 18th goal of the season to put the Avs up 1-0 at 11:33, and then minutes later Martin Necas stayed red hot by scoring his 27th goal at 14:05. This gave the Avs a comfortable 2-0 lead going into the 1st intermission.

The start of second period was a different story, as the Ducks quacked back with Cutter Gauthier’s 29th goal of the season, just 4:50 into the period. Then just a minute later they gave the Ducks a power play on a Josh Manson penalty. This ended up being the most pivotal part of the game, as the Avs killed that penalty and used that momentum the rest of the way.

Parker Kelly continued to be amazing by scoring one goal toward the end of the 2nd period and then adding another late in the 3rd to give the 4th line grinder an incredible 15 goals on the season.

Gabriel Landeskog quieted his one critic from earlier in the day (more on this in a later post), by blasting his 9th goal into the back of net in the third period off yet another great pass by MacKinnon.

The Avs straight up dominated the Ducks, which was great to see after being shut down by them last meeting. It was also great to see them keep up the pace and energy on back-to-back nights, which had been a bit of a weak spot for them before the Olympic break.

Honestly, I think that spark they had tonight had a lot to do with their captain being back. He just makes that difference. You could tell with him being out of the lineup for over a month, and you could tell with him being out for the three years he missed. This team feeds off of Gabriel Landeskog’s leadership, on and off the ice. He is probably the most important captain in the league right now, and it just speaks volumes how the Avs have taken the NHL by storm again this season.

Now what’s interesting though, is that the Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars just keep on winning as well. Both teams won on Tuesday night to keep pace with the Avs at the top of not only the Central Division and Western Conference, but the entire NHL. It’s amazing that the three best records in the league at the end of the season could all be from this crazy division.

But it’s also a shame that because of the stupid divisional playoff format, if they do finish as they stand right now, it will be impossible for them to play each other in the Western Conference Final. Two of these teams will be out after the first two rounds.

That is a discussion for a different day. All we know right now is that the Avalanche are leading the charge, and they will have to continue to play at their very best if they want to accomplish the first goal of winning the division.

Avs next tilt will be on Friday night in Dallas to take on those pesky Stars. Puck drop is at 6:00 PM MT. Be sure to follow me on X @303Hockey for all of my latest thoughts and in-game analysis.

Friday will also be an interesting day because it is NHL Trade Deadline Day! I plan on covering the day with live updates leading all the way up to the deadline. Look forward to interacting with you!