Preview: Colorado Avalanche take on ailing San Jose Sharks at home
The Colorado Avalanche return to the Ball Arena tonight to face the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks just lost to the Arizona Coyotes yesterday 5-3. Colorado is looking to win back-to-back games after a big win over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday.
Colorado avalanche
Nathan MacKinnon and his upper body injury have been the talk of the town lately. Luckily, we saw him skating and shooting yesterday, and today Jared Bednar informed Altitude Radio that MacK will be playing the San Jose Sharks tonight.
The roster we’ll see come playoff time will begin to take shape once we see the return of captain Gabriel Landeskog and defenseman Sam Girard. Hopefully more ice time leads to some hot streaks for deep players in the meantime.
Projected programming
Valeri Nichushkin – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen
Artturi Lehkonen – Nazem Kadri – André Burakovsky
Alex Newhook-Nico Sturm-JT Compher
Andrew Cogliano – Darren Helm – Logan O’Connor
Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Jack JohnsonJosh Manson
Kurtis MacDermid – Erik Johnson
San Jose Sharks
The Sharks have had a tough time in the 2021-22 season. They are twelve points off the second and last wildcard spot in the West with just sixteen games left.
On the bright side, the Sharks were able to sign Avalanche killer Thomas Hertl to an extension this season. He and Timo Meier are undoubtedly the future of the Sharks franchise.
Projected programming
Timo Meier – Tomas Hertl – Alexander Barabanov
Rudolf Balcers – Logan Couture – Noah Gregor
Sasha Chmelevski – Nick Bonino – John Leonard
Jeffrey Viel – Lane Pederson – Scott Reedy
Jaycob Megna – Brent Burns
Erik Karlsson – Nicolas Meloche
Marc-Edouard – Ryan Merkley
Goalkeeper
With Darcy Kuemper getting the last two starts, I imagine we see Pavel Francouz between the pipes for Colorado. Frankie has gone above and beyond in his substitute role this season. He can secure his thirteenth victory in his seventeenth game played.
With the Sharks on the second of a back-to-back, they’ll start Kaapo Kahkonen. Kahkonen is 12-9-3 this season with a 2.91 GAA and 0.910% SV.