The Colorado Avalanche share some things in common with the football team that plays their home games right beside Ball Arena: The Denver Broncos at Empower Field. The Avs have the best record in hockey at 18-1-6 while the Broncos are tied with the Patriots at 10-2 for best in the NFL. Additionally, the Denver Nuggets are a top-4 team in the NBA’s Western Conference at 14-5.
It’s a great time to be a fan of all three teams.
Now, there’s not really any need for debate of who the best major sports team is in Colorado, but it is sort of fun to think about.
In the month of November, the Broncos, Nuggets & Avalanche won or earned a point (NHL) in 28 of their 31 combined games.
— Jake Coyne (@TheStatSquatch) December 1, 2025
That’s the best combined percentage by an NFL, an NBA and an NHL team from a metropolitan area in a month in the history of those leagues (min. 2 GP each). pic.twitter.com/9BijfJcEaw
As a fan of both the Broncos and Avalanche, I’ve watched every game. It’s clear as day that the Avalanche are the far superior team in their league. They’ve won about 13 games convincingly. It feels as if 99 percent of their game is on fire. Of course, the power play still needs some work to score more consistently. They rank 24th at 16.3 percent conversion rate.
As far as the Broncos, they’re a team that gets going a lot later in games more often than not. The Avalanche have had that problem a few times, but they also end up usually scoring multiple goals so that they aren’t just one goal ahead. The Broncos have won seven of their 10 games by three or less points. In the NFL, that’s a very narrow margin. It keeps fans on their toes.
Avs Faithful usually gets to sit back and relax when they get ahead by multiple goals. However, that formula won’t always work, as any team can make some nice plays at any given time. One of the worst things you can do as a team is to be overconfident and be less on your game against teams that everyone views as weaker.
For instance, a little over a week ago, the Avs took on the Chicago Blackhawks, who are 10-14 on the year. Easy win, right?
Not necessarily. They did come away with the win, but were only able to score one goal. That’s the sort of matchup I’d hope the Avs would win by at least three or four goals. It just goes to show that you can’t take any team lightly. You will have off days, but if you do more than your opponent, you’ll come away successful.
For the Broncos, I look at the games against the Jets, Giants, and Commanders (Sunday night) as games that the team should have crushed their opponents. The Jets (New York) are the Jets. They’re always a mess. The Broncos won that game 13-11. Close call. In the Giants game, it took a massive fourth quarter comeback to crush New York. On Sunday night (yesterday), the Broncos faced a decent backup quarterback but neither their offense nor defense were on their game.
What many expected to be a decent win against a team that was 3-8, and who lost their starting quarterback, turned out to be a game where the weaker team took the Broncos into overtime and almost pulled off a win. The Broncos are an example of a team that needs to play better throughout the duration of an entire game.
The Avalanche do have some margin for error, but I hope that we don’t have to face that anytime soon. We’ve still yet to play some key division games, and those tend to be some of the craziest games on the schedule. With how good the Avs are doing, I’m not at all concerned. However, as we all know, something can flip at any time. They have to remain focused throughout every single game to keep up the pace and remain at the top of the NHL.