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Tonight the Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks will face off for the final time of the 2020-21 season. The Sharks were disqualified from playoff contention after their overtime loss to Colorado on Monday. The Avalanche are just two points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for best in the west with a game in hand.
COLORADO AVALANCHE
The Avs are coming off a character win over San Jose. The victory was secured in overtime by an Andre Burakovsky snapshot. Colorado also got a tying goal from forward Nazem Kadri, who has struggled mightily this season but can make a mark when the postseason rolls around.
The most noteworthy news of the day is that Alex Newhook will be making his debut for the Colorado Avalanche. Newhook (20) has looked like an elite talent for the Colorado Eagles, scoring eight points in eight games.
Welcome to the AHL Alex #EaglesCountry pic.twitter.com/UtCZxpVHCu
— Colorado Eagles (@ColoradoEagles) April 15, 2021
UPDATE:
Newhook will be making his debut next to Kadri and Burakovsky. That should be fun! And it looks like Jacob MacDonald will be back as well.
Alex Newhook will play center tonight on a line with Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky. Jared Bednar said he wants to play Newhook with skilled players.
— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) May 5, 2021
FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen
Nazem Kadri - Alex Newhook - Andre Burakovsky
Joonas Donskoi - Tyson Jost - Valeri Nichushkin
Carl Soderberg - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - J.T. Compher
DEFENDERS
Devon Toews - Cale Makar
Ryan Graves - Conor Timmins
Jacob MacDonald - Patrik Nemeth
SAN JOSE SHARKS
The Sharks 2020-21 campaign is all but over, with just four games remaining in their season. San Jose will finish among some of the league’s worst teams regarding goal differential and standings position.
FORWARDS
Alexander Barabanov - Tomas Hertl - Evander Kane
Rudolfs Balcers - Logan Couture - Noah Gregor
Timo Meier - Alexander True - Kevin Labanc
Ryan Donato - Patrick Marleau - John Leonard
DEFENDERS
Mario Ferraro - Brent Burns
Nikolai Knyzhov - Erik Karlsson
Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Christian Jaros
GOALTENDERS
The Sharks will go with Josef Korenar in net tonight, who has struggled behind his team with just two wins in five starts. He’s sporting a 3.21 GAA and has stopped .896 percent of shots.
The Avalanche will likely lean on Philipp Grubauer once more after a dicey four-goal game in Monday’s duel. Grubauer wasn’t really to blame as the Avalanche made costly turnovers all over the ice and left Gru out to dry a bit. Grubauer is among the league’s best statistically with a 2.00 GAA and .920 SV%.