Preview: Colorado looks to keep their winning ways alive against San Jose

Can the Avalanche continue to build upon their last game against the Sharks?

After finally breaking through and earning their first win of the season against the Anaheim Ducks, the Colorado Avalanche head out for a little three-game west coast road trip. Today marks the first of those three games against the winless San Jose Sharks.

Colorado Avalanche

After finally breaking through and earning their first win against the Ducks, Colorado hopes to continue their winning ways and build upon their last game against the Sharks tonight. The last game was arguably anything but easy for the Avs, as they controlled a large majority of that game but still found themselves going to overtime, and were on the receiving end of some unlucky goals throughout the game. Despite all of that, however, they still found a way to finally get their first win of the year and put everything together in one game.

On a positive front, it seems like some reinforcements could be coming for this team sonner than a lot of people expected. Devon Towes is going to travel with the team on this trip, but he is unlikely to play on Sunday. Jonathan Drouin will not travel, though the hope is that he’ll be close to being back once the team gets back.

Projected Lines

Ross Colton – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen
Nikolai Kovalenko – Casey Mittelstadt – Logan O’Connor
Miles Wood – Parker Kelly – Calum Ritchie
Ivan Ivan – Matthew Stienburg – Joel Kiviranta

John Ludvig – Cale Makar
Samuel Girard – Josh Manson
Calvin DeHaan – Sam Malinski

San Jose Sharks

The Sharks have no doubt struggled this season so far, which isn’t necessarily a surprise, as they are a rebuilding team. Like Colorado, they’ve actually also suffered a fair amount of injuries, as players like Macklin Celebrini are currently out injured. One bright spot for this team has arguably been Mackenzie Blackwood, as he’s kept the Sharks in a majority of their games thus far.

Projected Lines

Fabian Zetterlund – Mikael Granlund – Tyler Toffoli
Danil Gushchin – Alex Wennberg – Barclay Goodrow
Carl Grundstrom – Ty Dellandrea – Luke Kunin
Givani Smith – Nico Sturm – Klim Kostin

Jake Walman – Cody Ceci
Mario Ferraro – Jan Rutta
Henry Thrun – Matt Benning

Goaltenders

It will likely be Alexandar Georgiev in net again tonight for Colorado. He’s slowly been trending upward the past couple of games, and tonight’s another opportunity to build on his play and confidence. Mackenzie Blackwood will likely be in net across from him, who as mentioned earlier has no doubt been a bright spot for this San Jose team in a majority of their games, minus their most recent one on Friday against the Winnipeg Jets.