Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss how Colorado went from the worst NHL team of the 21st century to the most fun bunch in town.

The transformation was as quick as that sonic booming shot Kid MacK fired past stunned Ducks goalie Ryan Miller for a score that blew the roof off the Pepsi Center, where there were 16,090 hipsters ahead of the local sports curve. The crowd shouted “Dilly, dilly!” whenever a Anaheim player got sent to the penalty box and raucously celebrated Monday’s 3-1 victory by a Colorado team rapidly being carried back to respectability on the back of MacKinnon.

“He should be up for the Hart Trophy,” Avs defenseman Erik Johnson said, beginning the campaign for MacKinnon as the league’s most valuable player.

Colorado has won seven times in a row. After losing 60 of 82 games last season, the Avs are undefeated thus far in 2018.

“Different year, different team,” said Jean Martineau, the team’s communications vice president who has enjoyed long, satisfying drinks from the Stanley Cup and also endured every ounce of suffering since the Avs moved to Denver in 1995.

When did pro hockey become fun again in Colorado? Maybe it’s impossible to precisely pinpoint the exact moment.

All Johnson knows is this: “In hockey, the saying is: ‘There’s winning. And then there’s hell.’ There’s no in-between.”

If there are seven rings of H-E-double hockey sticks, then nothing burned the Avalanche more than that morning back on Sept. 14, when disgruntled center Matt Duchene reluctantly arrived at training camp. In a 19-second statement, Duchene declared the only reason he reported to the Colorado locker room was to honor his contract.

In a strange, unanticipated way, when Duchene issued his brief, obtuse and awkward but very public request for a divorce, it changed everything about a hockey franchise that had wasted too many pitiful nights feeling sorry for itself.

“The easy thing for all us would be to say, ‘This isn’t fun, I want to be somewhere else,’ ” recalled Johnson, who stood within 10 feet of Duchene on the contentious September morning that could have ruined another Avs season from Day One.

Know what Duchene did? Without realizing it, he drew an emotional line through the center of the Avalanche logo in the locker room. Teammates were forced to choose: Are you all in? Or did you want out?

“We’ve been through some dark years. But I wanted to stay here and be part of the solution,” Johnson said. “I didn’t want to jump ship and find another place to play. I wanted to stay in Colorado and make it work in here. I think the core of this team decided the same thing.”

Despite injuries to key contributors such as goalie Semyon Varlamov and defenseman Tyson Barrie, the Avs have won seven straight for the first time in a dozen seasons. There is much work to be done. A spot in the Western Conference playoffs is far from assured. Related Articles Avalanche re-signs former DU star Logan O’Connor on two-year contract

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But here’s what I know for certain: We’re witnessing MacKinnon morph from teenage prodigy to a 22-year-old man. His 20 goals get all the love on television. What’s more impressive, however, is the growth to accept what great responsibility goes with the blessing of the hockey talent MacKinnon has received.

Growing up isn’t easy, or always fun. The way MacKinnon now wears his new-found maturity, however, is a blast to watch by every Denver sports fan savvy enough to grab a seat.

“It’s fun,” MacKinnon said.