Game Day Preview: Sharks Host Colorado Avalanche, Start Two-Game Home Stand
By Felix Chow
Overview
With their playoff hopes dwindling even further away following a heartbreaking 3-2 shootout loss in Pittsburgh against the Penguins on Sunday, the San Jose Sharks look to salvage whatever pride they have left to gather as they face the Colorado Avalanche at the start of a two-game home stand.
Team Briefings
The Sharks arrive back home at SAP Center coming off a season-defining road trip where they went 3-3-1, not bad enough to free-fall a lot further in the standings, but not nearly good enough to propel them any closer to that final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Like the Sharks, Avalanche are already well-behind in the playoff race. Tonight, they come into the Shark Tank coming off a 4-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers. This is also the first time the two teams have met since late October, and the first time this season that Colorado has played at SAP Center.
Team Stats
Sharks
Goals per game: 2.74 (15th)
Goals-against per game: 2.75 (24th)
Power play: 21.6 percent (6th)
Penalty kill: 79.0 percent (25th)
Avalanche
Goals per game: 2.59 (21st)
Goals-against per game: 2.75 (23rd)
Power play: 14.0 percent (29th)
Penalty kill: 84.4 percent (6th)
Players To Watch
Shark forward Ben Smith scored his first goal against the Penguins since his debut on March 2nd. He has a goal and two points in 13 games with San Jose.
For the Avalanche, forward Ryan O’ Reilly has a career-high eight-game scoring streak with 5 goals and 8 assists totaling 13 points. He led the Avs with 17 points in March, and has 24 points, including 5 goals and 19 assists, in his last 21 games. He leads Colorado with 38 assists on the season.
Sharks
Melker Karlsson – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Patrick Marleau – Logan Couture – Tomas Hertl
Matt Nieto – Chris Tierney – Tommy Wingels
John Scott – Ben Smith – Barclay Goodrow
Brenden Dillon – Justin Braun
Scott Hannan – Brent Burns
Matt Irwin – Taylor Fedun
Alex Stalock (confirmed starter)
Antti Niemi
Avalanche
John Mitchell – Matt Duchene – Jarome Iginla
Gabriel Landeskog – Ryan O’Reilly – Alex Tanguay
Cody McLeod – Marc-Andre Cliché – Dennis Everberg
Jordan Caron – Freddie Hamilton – Joey Hishon
Nate Guenin – Tyson Barrie
Jan Hejda – Zach Redmond
Brad Stuart – Nick Holden
Reto Berra (confirmed starter)
Semyon Varlamov
Injuries/Scratches
Sharks
Mike Brown (broken right leg), Marc-Eduoard Vlasic (lower body), Raffi Torres (right knee), and Mirco Mueller are on IR.
Avalanche
Jesse Winchester (concussion), Ryan Wilson (shoulder), Jamie McGinn (back), Patrick Bordeleau (fractured kneecap), Borna Rendulic (broken leg), Erik Johnson (knee), Nate MacKinnon (broken foot) and Danny Briere (foot) are on IR.
Sharks Viewer/Listener Notes
TV: NBCSN
Radio: 98.5 KFOX