One point out of second place in the rugged Central Division, three points out of first, 20 regular-season games remaining.
Is this Avalanche team having a remarkable season or what?
The Avalanche (40-17-5) defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 on Tuesday night for its 19th road win. Colorado remains in third place but has 85 points in 62 games while the Blackhawks (36-13-14) have 86 points in 63 games. Front-running St. Louis (41-14-6) erased a 2-0 deficit for the second game in a row and knocked off Tampa Bay 4-2, giving it 88 points in 61 games.
The Avalanche concludes its two-game road trip Thursday in Detroit and opens a four-game homestand Saturday against the Blues.
"Our objective at the start of the season was to surprise the world of hockey and I guess we're making it more interesting," coach Patrick Roy said after Tuesday's win, the Avalanche's third win in four games against the defending Stanley Cup champions. "The players deserve a lot of credit for the effort. Every day we're jumping on the ice with great intensity and working hard. I'm just proud of our group, as simple as that. We're playing with a lot of confidence, without a doubt. We're certainly happy to be in the position that we are today."
Guess so. The Avalanche needed 62 games to hit the 40-win mark, the fastest it has done so in franchise history. The 2000-01 championship team won its 40th game in the 63rd game.
Maybe some of the rumors that have been swirling around this team, particularly those involving center Paul Stastny, will dissipate before Wednesday's 1 p.m. (Mountain time) NHL trade deadline.
Probably not, but Roy -- he also wears a vice president of hockey operations hat -- didn't sound Tuesday night like someone who is ready to mess with the Avalanche's roster.
"When you have 40 wins at this stage of the season, you are doing something right," Roy said. "We have great chemistry. I'm very proud of the guys."
As for the team's revival from a year ago, when it finished last in the Western Conference and 29th overall:
"I'm not saying it is a surprise to me," Roy said. "When I look at our roster, we have a great team. Good young players, a good mix with our veterans, who do a good job of talking to our younger guys. It is not necessarily a surprise to me, but it is to the NHL. If you're looking at everybody who was making predictions at the beginning of the year, I would say 80 percent -- if it's not 90 percent -- of people would say the Avalanche would miss the playoffs. (Clinching) is not something done yet, but we're certainly in good shape right now and we're competing to maybe surprise the world of hockey and might have the home-ice advantage.
"We're going to take it one day at a time and remain even keel, and that's what we've been doing so well since the start of the season."
Stastny, by the way, sealed the deal against the Blackhawks by scoring into an empty net with 32.6 seconds left, giving him eight goals and 13 assists in the past 18 games.
Rookie Nathan MacKinnon assisted on the play, stretching his point-scoring streak to 12 games (five goals, 12 assists). He tied Wayne Gretzky for the NHL's longest streak for an 18-year-old. The Great One did it in 1979-80 in the Edmonton Oilers' first season in the league. MacKinnon leads all rookies in goals (22), assists (28) and points (50).
Goalie Semyon Varlamov made 36 saves for his 31st win; Ryan O'Reilly scored his team-leading and career-high 24th goal and added an assist; Tyson Barrie's power-play goal with 7:50 left snapped a 2-2 tie and he had an assist; Erik Johnson had three assists; Max Talbot scored a goal; and Matt Duchene had an assist, giving him a team-high 56 points in 59 games.
The Avalanche went 1-for-3 on power plays and has gone 7-for-16 with the man advantage in four games following the break for the Olympics.
"We're moving the puck well," said Barrie, who has four goals and nine assists in the past 12 games. "Both units are clicking and we're shooting when we need to and getting some timely goals. It's nice to have our power play going. You're definitely going to need it if you're going to win some games."
The Blackhawks outshot the Avalanche 38-21, but Varlamov was strong again in winning his third consecutive game.
"Varly was outstanding as usual," Barrie said. "He made some great saves for us. We're not perfect out there, we make a lot of mistakes. Varly's there every time to back us up and to bail us out. You can't say enough about the guy. It's nice to have him for another five years, nice to have him locked up.
"This is what we wanted to do, we wanted to try and reel these guys in," Barrie said of the Blackhawks. "This was obviously a big step for us in the division. We're feeling pretty good right now and we're going to try and carry this momentum into Detroit.
"I don't think we're looking too far ahead. We want to make the playoffs and try and seed ourselves as high as we can. That's the main goal right now. We know we have the goaltending, we know we're a team that can hang around and beat you late. It'll be fun to see what we can do."