Fuel up those fire trucks for the championship parade, because ain’t nobody stopping these Avs from hoisting the Stanley Cup.

Hot take? Maybe.

But I’ve got my reasons, and the No. 1 reason to believe this is the Avalanche’s year to win it all can be described in two words:

Gabe Landeskog.

He is this team’s secret sauce.

After beating Minnesota 5-2 Tuesday at Ball Arena in a fashion that was as no nonsense and as low stress as any NHL playoff game against top-shelf competition can be, the Avalanche’s record this season with Landeskog in the lineup is 51-7-8.

Is that any good?

It’s borderline unstoppable.

‘’It’s playoff hockey,” Landeskog said. “It’s what you play for. It’s what you think about through the dog days of the season. It’s what you think about when you’re training in the offseason. … It’s all about laying it all out there.’’

On a loaded Colorado team, there are players more talented than Landeskog, starting with future Hall of Fame inductees Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar.

But nobody is more valuable to the undeniable championship vibe of these Avs than Landy.

He’s everything a team wants in a captain. And more.

I’ve only been hanging out in hockey barns, football stadiums, basketball arenas and baseball parks in Colorado for 43 years. Captain Gabe is the best team leader I’ve ever seen work in this dusty old cow town.

Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning was the Sheriff. But Landeskog is the standard. 

Landeskog has worn the “C” for the Avalanche since he was a teenager. I asked MacKinnon how much Colorado missed Landy’s leadership when an injury kept the captain off the ice for more than three years.

”It’s a void you can’t fill. We waited a long time for him to come back. It was worth the wait,” MacKinnon said. ”As a person, just a human, awesome to have around …”

But before MacKinnon could take a breath and sing a second verse of praise, Landeskog couldn’t take it anymore and interrupted his teammate: ”That’s enough.’’

The Avs not only won the Cup in 2022, they dominated the competition, sweeping two series and losing only four times on their way to the requisite 16 victories to be crowned champions.

Between then and now, there were three frustrating seasons when Colorado lost the unshakable confidence to stare down the adversity playoff hockey inevitably brings.

It’s much more than a coincidence that those three years were marked by Landeskog’s long and winding road back from a freak, career-threatening injury that required him to undergo a knee cartilage transplant to be a physically active father to Luke and Linnea, let alone return to the sport he loves.

“The last three years kind of flew by quick,” MacKinnon said after Colorado swept the L.A. Kings in the opening round, before taking a glance to his left at Landeskog and adding: “I don’t think it did for him. He worked extremely hard to get back.’’

In the angry post-mortem for another wasted year of Nikola Jokic’s MVP prime after the Nuggets were rudely bounced from the NBA playoffs, fingers of blame have been wagged at everything and everybody from the team’s lack of fighting spirit to inexperienced coach David Adelman.

The Nuggets aren’t soft. But they don’t have a Captain Gabe.

Outside of defense so weak that Timberwolves star Jaden McDaniels brazenly kicked its butt and took names, what the basketball locker room in Ball Arena lacks most is Landeskog’s secret sauce. 

He has the rare ability to demand nonnegotiable accountability, but also offer a shoulder to lean on in times of stress. Landy leads with his words and his fists. He’s the most eloquent member of the Avalanche and the most ornery.

When he’s done playing hockey, the possibilities for Landeskog are limited only by his ambition. He would command any room, whether working a U.S. network television studio or the Riksdag parliamentary house back in his homeland of Sweden.

In Game 2 of this best-of-seven series, Colorado kept the Wild in the rearview mirror from the moment Landeskog camped out in front of Minnesota netminder Filip Gustavsson and hammered home a power-play goal to put the Avalanche ahead 2-1 a little more than eight minutes deep in the first period.

The scoring touch that has allowed Landeskog to produce more than 600 points in his NHL career is back, but it’s all the small things that make him so invaluable.

“I felt like tonight was a marquee kind of Landy game. He was really tenacious in all areas of the ice … forechecking … finding ways to get to the front of the net and get the puck there … his patience was really good … he was just contributing everywhere,” Makar said.

Now undefeated in six playoff games after finishing the regular season on a three-game winning streak, the Avs have not lost in 24 days.

Can’t tell you when this wagon of a hockey team will hit a bump in the playoff road.

But can promise you: After 10 more victories, the first Avalanche player to hoist the Stanley Cup will be Captain Gabe.