From top to bottom, the Avs might have their best team in 18 years, the last time they advanced to the Western Conference Finals and a year after they won their second Stanley Cup in 2001.
Here are five key questions heading into the second half, when Colorado comes out of its 11-day break between games at Philadelphia.
Are they contenders?
They aren’t pretenders, a label which could have been applied to last season’s team that came a Game 7 win shy of the Western Conference Finals.
The Avs are much-improved offensively with the offseason acquisitions of forwards Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, Joonas Donskoi and Valeri Nichushkin.