COLORADO AVALANCHE (1-0-0) AT SAN JOSE SHARKS (0-1-0)
8:00 PM MDT | SAP CENTER |WATCH: ALTITUDE TV | LISTEN: 92.5FM
The Colorado Avalanche take on the San Jose Sharks Saturday night in the second game of the new campaign at the SAP Center.
Latest Results:
October 11,2023 COL: 5 LAK: 2
October 12, 2023 SJS: 1 VGK: 4
STARTING OFF HOT
Colorado kicked off the 2023-2024 season with a 5-2 win on the road against the Los Angeles Kings. This was the first time in the teams history that the Avs began a season by playing the Kings. Since relocating to Denver, the Avalanche now possess a 15-9-3-1 record on Opening Night. Colorado has now won their past three season openers by a combined score of 14-6.
AVALANCHE vs KINGS 10.11.2023 RECAP
Nathan MacKinnon scored the first goal of the game and of the new season for the Avs in the first period. It was the first time in MacKinnon’s career he has scored the first goal of the season for the Colorado. Cale Makar recorded a power-play goal and picked up an assist, his 64th career multi-point game; passing Sandis Ozolinsh for most in franchise history by a defenseman. Mikko Rantanen tallied four points on the night (2g/2a) and was awarded the first star of the game.
Miles Wood sealed the game with an empty-net goal, joining three Avs to record their first point as a member of the Avalanche (Colton, Tatar, Drouin).
Alexandar Georgiev made 34 saves on 36 shots. Georgiev has now won consecutive season openers with the Avalanche, including last year’s 5-2 win against the Blackhawks on the team’s banner raising night.
The Avalanche went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and 1-for-3 on the power-play. Three Avalanche skaters registered a multi-point game (MacKinnon, 1g/2a; Rantanen, 2g/2a; Makar, 1g/1a).
HISTORY
Colorado has a 60-40-5-7 all-time record against San Jose, with a 25-26-1-5 mark on the road. In last season’s meetings the Avalanche went 3-0-0 against the Sharks, with Colorado winning twice on the road at the SAP Center in a span of three days. The Avalanche outscored the Sharks 16-5 in the three contests en route to making them one of eight teams they swept the season series against. Saturday’s contest is the only away game of the three scheduled between the two teams this season with the others set for December 17, 2023, and December 31, 2023 at Ball Arena.
GETTING OFF ON THE WRONG FOOT
San Jose began their season by losing to the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 at the SAP Center on Thursday night. The lone Sharks goal was scored by Filip Zadina, who was playing in his first game as a member of the Sharks after being acquired in free agency this off-season. Tomas Hertl recorded an assist on the goal, becoming the sixth Sharks player with 10+ career points in season-opening games; joining Patrick Marleau (14), Joe Thornton (14), Joe Pavelski (13), Logan Couture (12), and Brent Burns (10). Kaapo Kahkonen made 28 saves out of 32 shots on goal. The Sharks went 0-for-2 on the power-play and were able to kill off the Knights only power-play of the game.
LINEUP UPDATES
The team practiced on Friday afternoon in Los Angeles. Below are the line combinations and defensive pairings the Avalanche deployed.
Forwards
Drouin – MacKinnon – Rantanen
Lehkonen – Johansen – Nichushkin
Wood – Colton – Tatar
Cogliano – Olofsson – O'Connor
Defensemen
Toews – Makar
Girard – Byram
Manson - Johnson
Goalies
Georgiev
Annunen
SHREDDING THE SHARKS
Nathan MacKinnon led Colorado with nine points (4g/5a) against the Sharks last season playing in all three contests. Those nine points were the most MacKinnon put up against any team last season.
Mikko Rantanen tied MacKinnon for the team lead in goals against San Jose last season with four. Three of those tallies came when he registered a hat trick in the last meeting with them (April 6,2023), clearing the 50-goal threshold in the process.
Alexandar Georgiev started all three games last season against the Sharks.He recorded a .925 SV% across those three outings, notched a shutout, and only allowed five total goals (62-for-67).
SCOUTING THE ENEMY
Logan Couture leads all active Sharks skaters with 34 points (12g/22a) in 45 career games played against the Avalanche.
Tomas Hertl has recorded 21 points (7g/14a) in 26 career games against the Avalanche. The centerman Hertl has eleven points (4g/7a) in his last eight games played against the Avs. In those last eight games, Hertl has tallied three multi-point performances.
NUMBERS GAME
40
Since debuting in the 2013-14 season, no player in the NHL has recorded more points against the Sharks than Nathan MacKinnon with 40 (16g/24a) in 31 games. The Wild (49) and Blues (46) are the only teams MacKinnon has recorded more points against in his career.
14
Mikko Rantanen has scored 14 goals in 21 career games against San Jose. The Sharks also represent the third-most goals Rantanen has scored against an NHL club in his career, trailing only the Coyotes (15) and Ducks (15)
17
Cale Makar has tallied 17 points in 11 career games against the Sharks. That total is second among all NHL defenseman since the start of the 2019-20.
QUOTE(S) THAT LEFT A MARK
“Resilient is probably the right word. We had a good chat in the second intermission to stay on the gas and the third period might have been one our best period tonight. We were just solid both ways we didn’t give up a lot, there were lots of blocks I felt like guys were eating pucks. Georgie (Georgiev) was excellent all game, the team’s effort showed our mentality and that’s what we have to keep working on.”
- Colorado right wing Mikko Rantanen on holding on to the lead in the season opener.
