Colorado Avalanche to Face San Jose Sharks in Round 2

The Colorado Avalanche will not face the Vegas Golden Knights in Round 2. Their opponent will be the San Jose Sharks.

The Colorado Avalanche’s second-round opponent has been set after a series that went to Game 7: The San Jose Sharks.

Whether this is good news or bad news depends on your perspective. You don’t get seeded in a division unless you’re a good team, and both the Sharks and their first-round opponent Vegas Golden Knights were good teams.

On paper and in the eye test, it seemed the slower, older Sharks would be a better match-up for Colorado — in the way of a young, speedy team being able to exploit those weaknesses. However, the Avs have struggled with San Jose, going 0-3 this season. They also haven’t won in the Shark Tank since the Truman era. (Ok, since December 28, 2015, but you get the point.)

However, by the results of my Twitter poll, more fans preferred San Jose:

Conversely, the Avalanche have done well against the second-year Knights. Well, relatively well. They’ve never won in Vegas, but they’ve beaten the Knights at home, going 2-1 this season. Of course, Colorado won’t have home ice advantage in this or any series… but let’s not focus on that.

Let’s focus on the fact that when I started writing this post, I thought our opponents would be Vegas. Turns out a wild call and even wilder third period ultimately led to the Sharks winning,

The Colorado Avalanche are facing the San Jose Sharks. We don’t know yet when the series will start — I’m guessing Friday-ish — but it will start in SAP Center.

Here’s what the Avs will be facing:

Regular Season Leaders

Brent Burns: 83 points (16 goals, 67 assists)
Tomas Hertl: 74 points (35 goals, 39 assists)
Logan Couture: 70 points (27 goals, 43 assists)
Martin Jones: 36-19-5, .896 save percentage, 2.94 GAA

Playoff Leaders

Erik Karlsson: 9 points (0 goals, 9 assists)
Hertl: 8 points (6 goals, 2 assists)
Couture: 8 points (6 goals, 2 assists)
Jones: 4-2. .906 save percentage, 3.20 GAA

The Sharks are a stacked team. Let’s look if you distinguish the regular season by goals:

Joe Pavelsi: 38
Hertl: 35
Timo Meier: 30
Evander Kane: 30

The Sharks have four 30+ goal scorers to our three and five 60+ points players to our three. In other words, they’re more than a top line and a goalie.

Now the big X-factor is Joe Pavelski. He went down with a horrific injury against the Knights:

You never want to see a player go down like that. However, his return — or no return– will have an influence on the Colorado Avalanche series.

Ultimately, the Avs can’t control anything but their own play. It’s been ages — ok, four days — since we’ve had Avalanche hockey. Time to remedy that with Round 2 against the Sharks.

Side note: Well, Vegas fans. This isn’t exactly a 48-point season. However, a first-round exit must be pretty disappointing after last year’s success. Are you going to stick with your team?