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Colorado Avalanche: Can They Beat the San Jose Sharks?

By Nadia Archuleta

DENVER, COLORADO - MAY 06: Head coach Jared Bednar of the Colorado Avalanche watches as his team plays the San Jose Sharks in the first period during Game Six of the Western Conference Second Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Pepsi Center on May 6, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
DENVER, COLORADO - MAY 06: Head coach Jared Bednar of the Colorado Avalanche watches as his team plays the San Jose Sharks in the first period during Game Six of the Western Conference Second Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Pepsi Center on May 6, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /
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The Colorado Avalanche are a skilled and talented enough team to beat the Sharks. But will they bring the necessary goods?

Yes, the Colorado Avalanche can beat the San Jose Sharks. The Avs can beat any team. The question is, will they commit to doing it? Will they be able to find all the answers that seem to be necessary for a current victory?

That, I don’t know.

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The truth is, the Avalanche didn’t have a bad game against the Dallas Stars. For 55 minutes, they were the better team. Then, just a momentary relapse changed the momentum of the game and, ultimately, the result.

Everybody’s got an idea of what the problem is. It’s the goalie. It’s the coaching. It’s the secondary scoring. It’s the special teams. It’s the defense. It’s the leadership. And, you know what, when a team has blown six third-period leads and gone 3-4-3 in the last 10, you’re right. They have 10 losses in their last 14 games. So, yeah, many things are going wrong at the moment.

So, instead of offering advice — because, hey, these guys should know what they’re doing — I’m going to ask some questions that will play themselves out in the game.

Will the Colorado Avalanche get quality goal tending?

The Avs are reprising their slump from last season when they were getting below league average goal tending. At the time of writing, the goalie hadn’t been announced. However, they both have to be rock-solid in net.

Will the coaches continue to shuffle the lines around willy-nilly?

The Avs were winning the Stars game until the coaches decided to start novel line combinations that had never even been seen in practice. Why? I have no idea. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Will the Colorado Avalanche commit to defense?

They did on Tuesday. They had very few defensive lapses, but they couple they did have cost them.

Will the penalty kill get back on track?

Ideally, we won’t need this question answered. However, San Jose plays a heavy game, and the Avs are likely to take a penalty or two. The PK has been allowing goals every game for a while now — we’d like to see that cleaned up.

Will we see more secondary scoring?

I hope so. Players such as Nazem Kadri, Nikita Zadorov, Vladislav Kamenev, and Tyson Jost have all had chances each game. Yet, except for Zadorov, they’ve been snake-bitten.

PSA: No talk about trading Jost. It may happen. I’ll lose my marbles dramatically. And then we’ll move on like we always do. We’re not prolonging the pain.

Will the Colorado Avalanche be able to win in overtime?

They should be able to. This is not a question that will necessarily get answered tonight. However, it’s one that needs to get answered in the affirmative this season. I’m going to say it again — it comes down to winning that faceoff in OT.

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How to Enjoy the Game

Game Time: Jan. 16, 7:00 pm MT
TV: ALT, NBCSCA (Sharks’ feed)
Radio: Altitude Radio (FM 92.5/AM 950)

Tonight marks the first of three meetings between the Avalanche and Sharks. They last met in Game 7 of the Semi-Finals of last year’s playoffs. San Jose is coming off a 6-3 loss in Arizona.

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