Blink and the Avalanche are wide of you, or inside of you, and the puck is in the net. These guys go from Point A to B faster than Marcel Aubut took the money and dumped Quebec City and this team is no express train to nowhere, either. Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabe Landeskog, the best one-two-three unit in the NHL, throw it around with even more control than Patrick Roy demanded in personnel matters.

The Blues, Stars, even the Canucks, may say not-so-fast on a MacKinnon vs. McDavid Western Conference final by this spring or the next. But we’re not kidding about setting your DVR now because in slo-mo is the only way you are going to be able to follow the action of that inevitable Edmonton-Colorado series. Look Mac, it’s going to be faster than Al MacInnis could bring it from the point, or even Patrick Maroon could once load up on a McDonalds drive-thru. We didn’t think it was possible, but this Avalanche team is even faster than Matt Duchene decided he wanted out.

A 10-day layoff appeared to pass a little too slowly for Jared Bednar’s team to be at its best in a rusty 6-3 loss in Philadelphia on Saturday night. You can understand, however, that waiting is not in this team’s DNA. After watching the Avalanche, we’re declaring GM Joe Sakic the executive of the year without any delay.

It appears he has checked all the boxes on a true contender. 1) A driven superduper star in MacKinnon. 2) A highly skilled and grandly intuitive eventual playoff minute-eating defenseman in Cale Makar. 3) The requisite scoring depth at forward with the additions of Andrei Burakovsky, Nazem Kadri, and Joonis Donskoi, plus a gift from the Rangers of Ryan Graves to finish off a defense with excellent balance.

That Graves can play with Makar makes Sam Girard a better fit with Erik Johnson and enables a third pair of Ian Cole and Nikita Zadorov that is better than most teams possess in a 31-team league, including a few of the most obvious contenders.

“We did some experimentation playing Cale a little more earlier in the year and we didn’t find him to be as effective as when he was playing 20-21 minutes,” said Bednar.

“Some nights we use him more-in the 24 range. But if I can describe his game as go-go-go it’s hard to play 27 minutes that way. I certainly see he will be able to that in the future as he matures and learns to let the game come to him a little bit. He and our team are comfortable with him at around 22.

“We like the depth of our D corps. We don’t have to overuse him.”

Sounds like a plan, like the ability to play Burakovsky higher in the lineup than he earned in five years with the Caps. It’s the first week of February and already he is one goal away from his career high.

“He’s a confidence guy who had a good start,” said Bednar. “When he gets going he tends to score in bunches.

“He’s been elevated to a spot where he is playing with some real good players (Kadri and Valeri Nichuskin), putting him in the best situations where he can succeed. Especially on the power play, but five-on-five too, Andre has been good for us.”

So, clearly, has been Stan Kroenke’s decision in 2013 to trust Sakic with a rebuild. Be willing to lose enough and eventually building blocks like MacKinnon. Makar and Landeskog will be in place. But ask the people in Edmonton who went a decade without a playoff game: There’s more to it than just patience.

Sakic has the club well positioned against the cap to take care of Makar ahead of his RFA eligibility, Landeskog before his deal is up at the end of next season, and to re-up Phillipp Grubauer too, should the GM choose Is Grubauer a goalie who can win you four series? That’s the lingering question, and there is the chance that as soon as this spring we will have an answer to it. Had the Sharks not scored twice while a banged up MacKinnon was having his shoulder frozen in Game Seven last spring, the Avalanche probably would have been in the conference final and that was without a team as good as it is now.

The depth–or at least depth by 2020 standards–is there and there is a sense of purpose in the dressing room that would work in any era, thanks, apparently, to MacKinnon.

“He is very particular about the things he does and does them every day,” said Makar. “We have a lot of guys like that on our team.”

More than most, probably, because of the examples set by the best player. It took Steve Yzerman more than half his career to surrender to the necessary sacrifices of his own points and learn leadership he would have to exert over the entire team, not just his best buds. When he did, the result was three Cups.

The young Leaf stars will get this eventually, probably the hard way, like Yzerman. Perhaps MacKinnon could still learn a little about less being more on the nights he doesn’t have it all going offensively. Then again, there aren’t too many of those with which to teach himself.

It’s good to be a young coach and not have to fight that battle of responsibility with your most essential player. Who was the last great center who was this all-in for the team at age 24? Sidney Crosby figured it out early. So did Sakic, easier for him perhaps because Peter Forsberg could score the points. Bobby Clarke had it from Day One.

“It’s special for sure,” said Bednar. “I put that on Nathan’s competitive nature. He wants to win here.

“I feel that way about the whole team but he sets the tone in that regard. He is so competitive every time he stops on the ice. Practice or pre-game skates, he is always setting the pace. It’s something built into him and it’s fantastic. He holds everyone to a high standard and that’s what you need from one of your leaders.

“There is a belief system within our team and our leaders that has been built by getting a couple years of playoff experience under our belts. We learned to adapt a little bit last year. What we do on a nightly basis doesn’t necessarily work against the next team.

“There is a maturity; an understanding that we have to adjust quickly to win games.”

There’s that quickness factor again. With the joy the Avalanche is to watch, we’re in a hurry to see this next league power emerge.

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