Sharks at Avalanche: Lines, gamethread, where to watch

Martin Jones is back in net as the San Jose Sharks play some mile-high hockey in Denver tonight against the Colorado Avalanche. The last time these two teams met was during the 2019 postseason, where the Sharks beat out the Avalanche to advance to the Western Conference Final, on the backs of refereeing that I’m sure we’ll hear absolutely nothing about.

That said, both teams likely feel as though they have something to prove: for San Jose, the legitimacy of their win and that the team has found its identity this season, and for Colorado, that they deserved to be in last year’s WCF.

To make matters even more tense, our good boy and collective best friend Joonas Donskoi will be viewing his former teammates from the press box as he finishes going through concussion protocol. At least he won’t be able to make us hate him now, right? We miss you, Joonas.

Lines

Sharks

Expected Scratches: Joachim Blichfeld, Tim Heed

Injured Reserve: Logan Couture (fractured ankle), Dalton Prout (upper body)

Avalanche (via NHL.com)

Gabriel Landeskog — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Valeri Nichushkin — Nazem Kadri — Andre Burakovsky
Matt Calvert — Pierre-Edouard Bellemare — J.T. Compher
Matt Nieto — Tyson Jost — Vladislav Kamenev

Ryan Graves — Cale Makar
Samuel Girard — Erik Johnson
Ian Cole — Nikita Zadorov

Philipp Grubauer
Pavel Francouz

Expected Scratches: Mark Barberio

Injured Reserve: Joonas Donskoi (concussion protocol), Colin Wilson (lower body)

Where to Watch

Puck drop is at Pepsi Center at 6 PT/9 ET. Tonight’s broadcast will be available on NBC Sports California in the Bay Area and on Altitude Sports for the opponent’s market. Streaming will be available on NHLtv. The radio call will be on 98.5 KFOX or available to stream through the Sharks + SAP Center app.