WASHINGTON — Thirty games into the 82-game NHL season, and nearly six weeks after the Matt Duchene trade, Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic discussed the state of his team before Tuesday’s 5-2 loss at the Washington Capitals.

From the visiting management suite at Capital One Arena, Sakic said the recent 1-4 homestand was the dark point of the season but he liked how his young team responded, going 2-1 on the road trip before Tuesday’s loss. The Avs, who are the NHL’s second-youngest team, stand 14-14-2 with 30 points, which is 13th in the 15-team Western Conference but with a game or two in hand over most teams.

At this point a year ago, Colorado was 11-18-1 (23 points) and would only win another 11 games in the last 52 to finish with a club-record-low 48 points. In the offseason and with the trade of Duchene, Sakic and his staff replaced 30-somethings with teenagers and others in their early 20s.

“We’re a young energetic group that’s playing hard every night,” said Sakic, whose team was coming off 7-3 and 2-1 victories at Florida and Pittsburgh, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion. “We’re going through some growing pains, like every team, and we hit the wall in the homestand, but I like the way they’re handling it. I know we lost in Tampa (5-2 to the Lightning on Thursday), but we played pretty hard. We played better in Tampa than in our homestand, and these last two games have been pretty good. So, we’re reacting well, working hard, sticking together. I like what’s going on with the group.”

Sakic is particularly pleased with the overall development of 22-year-old center Nathan MacKinnon, who leads the team in virtually every statistical category and is having a career-best season as an alternate captain. The plan was always to build around MacKinnon, the No. 1 pick of the 2013 draft, and that plan remains intact.

“We want to bring up our kids, and have this team grow together,” Sakic said. “The energy and the skill we’ve got from our young guys is making it fun, and how they’re working together is making it fun. Give the players all the credit, because they’re playing together, showing energy and learning. We have some guys leading the way and doing a tremendous job. This is Nathan’s fifth year in the league — he’s still only 22 — but he’s taken the next step that Gabe (Landeskog) has, that EJ (Erik Johnson) has. We’ve got the guys who are leading and the other guys are following.”

Regarding the 1-4 homestand, Sakic said: “That was our toughest stretch so far. But there’s going to be another like that. It’s hard to play 82 games and not have those. Every team has a dip at some point. It’s how you bounce back, how you stop the losing streak, and I’ve thought we’ve done a pretty good job on this trip. It’s been a tough road trip and we’ve handled it well.”

On Nov. 4, Sakic finally pulled the trigger and traded disgruntled veteran center Matt Duchene, who no longer wanted to play for the team and requested a trade in January of last season. The Avalanche received a seven-player return package from two teams, getting 19-year-old defenseman Sam Girard and 21-year-old forward Vladislav Kamenev from Nashville; 18-year-old forward Shane Bowers and 29-year-old goalie Andrew Hammond from Ottawa; and a second-round pick (2018) from the Predators and first-round (2018) and third-round (2019) picks from the Senators.

Girard is with the Avs and Kamenev broke his arm in his debut with Colorado but is on the mend. Bowers, a 2017 first-round draft pick, is a first-line freshman center at Boston University and Hammond provides depth and trade value. The draft picks almost guarantee Colorado will win the trade — and win it big. Duchene has just two goals and four points in 15 games with Ottawa and the Senators are 3-10-2 with him in the lineup.

“Time will tell,” Sakic said of winning the trade. “Obviously, we’re happy with Girard. He’s come in, had a great start. He’s 19 and was playing junior last year. So he’s doing a tremendous job adjusting to the NHL. But time will tell on that. We did what we thought was best for our franchise, and that’s to move forward and build with prospects — build our prospect pool and try to stay young so that we’re all going to hit it together in a couple years. We did what we felt we had to do.”