Colorado has won nine of its last 11 games, including three shootout wins and one in overtime. Hejduk, Landeskog and O'Reilly supplied the shootout winners. Now, they comprise one of the club's top two scoring lines in the absence of Matt Duchene.

For a club with so much young talent, to find themselves four games above .500 after 41 games is a positive thing indeed.

When Duchene left the December 29th victory over Phoenix with a knee injury that will sideline him anywhere from four to six weeks, things looked gloomy indeed. Duchene, who turns 21 on January 16, became the youngest Avs player to lead the team in scoring last season when he scored 27 goals and 40 assists.

But the Avs are a well-coached, well-oiled machine under third-year coach Joe Sacco. While it's hard to find veteran stars amidst the lineup--Milan Hejduk, J-S Giguere and Jan Hejda are pretty much it--the Avs work in concert quite well. Whether it's Kevin Porter's third line or Paul Stastny's makeshift second, which currently features youngsters Dan Winnik and T.J. Gagliardi, the club's compete level is solid.

RYAN O'REILLY

O'Reilly (left) is the club's leading scorer (10-19-29), and leads the NHL with 55 takeaways, ahead of Pavel Datsyuk, Joe Thornton and Jonathan Toews. Lately, he's put the team on his shoulders. The second star of the week (Nov. 28-Dec.4), O'Reilly scored his tenth of the season in Los Angeles, tying the game at one apiece and sending it to a shootout, during which Hejduk won the game with his attempt.

"We definitely miss 'Dutchie' (Duchene)," O'Reilly told Hockeytalk. "He's one of the best players in the League, so talented. It definitely changed our game offensively. If other guys step up it brings us together as a whole team."

O'Reilly is being nice. "If" isn't the issue, it's "when." As in, the present. Right now, when his club needed him, O'Reilly stepped up.

STEFAN ELLIOTT

Rookie defenseman Stefan Elliott (left) has been huge during his recent callup. After 19 games, he's got numbers that elite defensemen pray for, with four goals and five assists. Had he been in the NHL rather than the AHL during the first 20 games of the season, he'd be one of the top-scoring defensemen in the League.

"(Elliott) had a good training camp for us," Sacco told Hockeytalk. "We just felt that he needed a little more time down in Lake Erie (AHL). Down there he played very well. We had a couple of injuries on the back end and we needed a defenseman. He brings a different dimension to our blue line. We have a lot of bigger guys that are a little more abrasive, a little harder to play against. He's obviously more offensive-minded. Really good on the power play, really good on the puck."

J-S GIGUERE and SEMYON VARLAMOV

Another Av who earned NHL Star of the Week honors recently was veteran Giguere. With a 9-5-1 record and a 1.96GAA/.927SV%, Giguere has been a revelation, and has pushed Semyon Varlamov to find his game. Varlamov (13-13-1; 2.96GAA/.900SV%) struggled through October and November.

Giguere went to Anaheim and beat his old club on Saturday night, and Varlamov stoned the LA Kings with 32 saves and was spectacular in the shootout, stopping all three shots. The former Capital who signed the big-money deal to be the clear-cut number one in Colorado has now won three straight starts.

It's a similar situation to the one in St. Louis, where Jaro Halak has been pushed by Brian Elliott.

The Avs now have two goaltenders upon which they can rely.

"Both goaltenders have been solid," said Sacco after the win in LA. "All we ask of our goaltenders is to give us a chance to compete every night and they've definitely been doing that. our guys battle hard, our goaltending is solid. (We have) two very capable goaltenders, (we're) very confident in both guys."

Overall, the Avalanche look ready to weather the loss of Duchene. Friday in Chicago and Saturday in St. Louis, they'll be tested again.

"We're learning to play with the lead and have done so over the past dozen games or so," Sacco told Hockeytalk. "We have to figure out how to play with a one-goal lead, or even if you're down by one goal. This League is so tight. It's a one-goal lead right now, especially in the second have of the season. We're maturing as a team and we're figuring out how to play those tight games. Coming down the stretch I'm sure there will be a lot of those games."