Sharks vs. Avalanche Preview: Time to rebound
Will the Sharks be able to rebound after an emotional game on Sunday?
After losing in overtime to the rival Kings, the Sharks are looking to bounce back and do so in a big way. In a bit of good timing they will face the previously middling Avalanche. I say this knowing full well that the Avalanche are in a playoff spot as of this writing. I am being serious, they are in a playoff spot, go look it up. As has been the case for the Avalanche under Patrick Roy though, the team has underlying numbers that shouldn't scare anyone. So who exactly will the Sharks face?
The Avalanche have been the beneficiaries of some good old fashioned luck as their goaltender, Semyon Varlamov has played lights out recently. Varlamov has won four straight games but luckily for the Sharks they won't have to face him and will instead face young netminder, Calvin Pickard.
Two teams riding hot streaks should bring a certain amount of intrigue to a game that will be aired nationally on NBCSN. It will be the the unstoppable force meets the immovable object, something has got to give.
Tale Of The Tape
 | @ |  |
| 26-21-3 | Record | 25-18-4 |
| 5th in Central | Rank | 2nd in Pacific |
| 46.4% | Score-Adj. Fenwick | 52.5% |
| 100.7 | PDO | 99.6 |
| 20 | PP% | 21.3 |
| 80.4 | PK% | 79.3 |
7PM PDT | SAP Center | San Jose
TV: NBCSN, SN1, SNE, SNO, SNW | Radio: SJSharks.com, 98.5 KFOX
Know Your Enemy: Mile High Hockey
Projected Sharks Lines
Tomas Hertl – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Matt Nieto – Patrick Marleau – Joel Ward
Joonas Donskoi – Logan Couture – Tommy Wingels
Melker Karlsson – Chris Tierney – Dainius Zubrus
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Paul Martin – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon – Dylan DeMelo
Martin Jones
Alex Stalock
Projected Avalanche Lines
Alex Tanguay – Nathan Mackinnon – Matt Duchene
Gabriel Landeskog – Carl Soderberg – Blake Comeau
Andreas Martinsen – Mikhail Grigorenko – Jarome Iginla
Cody McLeod – John Mitchell – Jack Skille
Francois Beauchemin – Erik Johnson
Nick Holden – Tyson Barrie
Chris Bigras – Andrew Bodnarchuk
Calvin Pickard
Semyon Varlamov
Last Meeting
Led by a hat trick from Nathan Mackinnon and an efficient power play the Avalanche defeated the Sharks 6-3.
Storylines
- With the third game in four days will any fatigue start to present itself?
- San Jose is 7-1-2 in the last ten games, one of the best stretches this year by the Sharks.
- Pavelski and Thornton are red hot, will they be able to take advantage of Calvin Pickard?/