Just when most of Denver had written off the Colorado Avalanche and started volleying Matt Duchene trade talk, the club hit the road and rattled off three straight wins, including one against the best team in hockey so far.

But simply getting the wins wasn’t was was so impressive, according to the guys from The Big, Little and Jake Show on Mile High Sports AM 1340. They say it’s the manner in which they won that is really impressive. In fact, its the different manners in which they won that is the most impressive.

Colorado opened the seven-game road trip in Philadelphia against a struggling Flyers team and saw backup goaltender Reto Berra pitch his second shutout of the year in a 4-0 defensive effort. Berra has been called into primary duty with Semyon Varlamov put on IR with a groin retroactive to Nov. 10. Berra has been solid on the year and “Big” (aka Andrew Fisher) thinks he’s earned the starting spot, even if Varlamov returns healthy.

On Thursday, Colorado won a hard-scrabble game against a Boston team that beat them soundly at Pepsi Center a month earlier. A “payback” type win that Jake (aka Jacob Helman) says wouldn’t have been possible without the resurgent play of Duchene. It was a big week for Duchene, who was named the NHL’s first star on Monday, and there was no bigger moment for him than his game-winning goal at the Garden. Trade rumors had already started to circulate about Duchene and Jake says Duchene responded in the best possible way.

“Little” (aka Alex Johnston), meanwhile, was particularly impressed with Saturday’s effort against Montreal, who entered the game as the best team in the league. Colorado was playing hesitant early, but two goals from Nathan MacKinnon in a span of thirteen seconds shifted the entire momentum of the game and the Avs cruised to a 6-1 blowout.

The fact that Colorado didn’t rely solely on one aspect of their game in earning those three wins has Big, Little and Jake feeling optimistic that Colorado can climb out of the cellar of the Central Division with games against Toronto and Winnipeg still to come on the road trip. Sandwiched between those games, though, is a pair with Pittsburgh and Washington who are both off to solid starts and always tough on home ice.

Colorado needs to gain three points on Winnipeg between over the next three games to give them a chance to leapfrog the Jets out of the basement in the Central when they play on Nov. 23.

Listen to the full discussion on what went right for the Avs last week, as well as some bonus Nuggets talk, in the podcast below…

Catch The Big, Little and Jake show every Sunday afternoon on Mile High Sports AM 1340 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of what’s new and what’s next in Colorado sports.