Ryan O'Reilly News

Record: 13-7-3, 29 points Leading scorers: Paul Stastny 4-16-20, Wojtek Wolski 9-11-20, Milan Hejduk 10-7-17. The skinny: Some of the shine from the Avs start has come off in the past two weeks.

Two games in a row, the Colorado Avalanche came flying out of the gate to wallop their opponent.

Not many players drafted in the ninth round end up becoming top line forwards, but David Jones of the Avalanche is a rare exception.

Tonight marks the start of a pivotal three-game road trip for the Colorado Avalanche as they visit Calgary to play the Flames before facing the Oil tomorrow night and Vancouver on Friday.

Surreal has become second nature to Ryan O'Reilly. From his draft day in June, to his first game as a member of the Colorado Avalanche just a few months later, to the day last month the Avs told the 18-year-old centre he'd be sticking around rather than returning to junior, the amazing life he's living hasn't completely sunk in.

The NHL will hit the quarter mark this week and what an unpredictable first few weeks it has been.

What if they put on a Hockey game and nobody came? No, it's not that bad yet. And yes, the people who remember Rockie Hockey could tell you what happens when it gets that bad.

Ryan O'Reilly gets in tune while taping his stick before a game in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Craig Anderson has been a revalation for the Avalanche this season. The seven-year NHL veteran sports a 11-4-2 record so far.

Ryan Potulny and Dustin Penner scored two of Edmonton's four power-play goals and also had assists, and the Oilers handed the Colorado Avalanche their first home loss of the season, 5-3 on Sunday night.

Colorado Avalanche rookie Ryan O'Reilly, right, crashes into Alexander Edler of the Vancouver Canucks on Nov.

This season, it's almost as if former Broncos guard Keith Bishop pops onto the Avalanche bench every time Colorado falls behind 2-0 and repeats his famous pronouncement as Denver was about to embark on the late 98-yard drive against Cleveland in the 1987 AFC championship game: "We got 'em right where we want 'em." On Friday night at the Pepsi ...

The Colorado extended their winning run at home to six games with a 4-3 shoot-out victory against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night.

The Blackhawks and Colorado Avalanche appear destined to play long games. They went nine rounds into a shootout in the Hawks' first game at the United Center this season before the Hawks pulled out a victory, and Friday the shootout went eight tension-packed rounds.

CHI COL 6:27 1 0 10:36 2 0 18:38 2 1 CHI COL 7:43 2 2 8:42 2 3 16:40 3 3 CHI COL 3 3 OT CHI COL 3 3 Shootout Summary Start of Shootout period Shootout attempt by Wojtek Wolski SAVED by Antti Niemi Shootout GOAL scored by Patrick Kane on Craig Anderson Shootout attempt by Milan Hejduk SAVED by Antti Niemi Shootout attempt by Kris Versteeg SAVED by ...

Chris Stewart scored in the eighth round of the shootout, helping the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche remain unbeaten at home with a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night.

Colorado's Ryan O'Reilly, left, works for the puck against Petr Prucha, centre, and Martin Hanzal in game action Wednesday.

New York Rangers defenseman Michael Del Zotto has been selected as the NHL's top rookie for the month of October.

The beginning of the season, which featured 11 of 15 games on the road, is over for the upstart Colorado Avalanche.

Vancouver may have devised a new strategy for 28 NHL teams when facing hard-to-beat Colorado Avalanche goalie Craig Anderson: Drive the net and get a bit lucky.