NHL Grind Down: Monday, December 28th - Page Two
Colorado Avalanche at San Jose Sharks – 10:30 PM EST
| Colorado Avalanche | San Jose Sharks | ||||||||
 | Semyon Varlamov |  | Martin Jones | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 17-17-1 | 17-15-2 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 2.83 | 2.77 | 17.60% | 79.20% | Team Stats | 2.71 | 2.76 | 20.90% | 83.70% |
After two straight disappointing home losses (Toronto and Arizona), Colorado will head to the Shark Tank to take on San Jose tonight. Patrick Roy recently tinkered with his forward lines, breaking up the very dangerous #1 line of Landeskog, MacKinnin and Duchene. The fallout was Nathan MacKinnon dropping down to play alongside Jarome Iginla and Alex Tanguay, with John Mitchell joining Landeskog and Duchene on the top line. While it’s hard to look at these changes as good news for MacKinnon, Landeskog or Duchene’s fantasy value, it makes sense from a pure hockey perspective and gives Jarome Iginla, Alex Tanguay and John Mitchell a nice boost. On defense, both Tyson Barrie and Erik Johnson see plenty of run on the point of the power-play, but it’s been Barrie putting up the most fantasy friendly numbers thus far (4 goals and 18 asssits in 33 games).
The Sharks stoppped the bleading a bit with a 5-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings in their last game before the holiday break, but this team still owns just a 3-6-2 record during the month of December and are clearly missing Logan Couture. However, they’ll face an Avalanche squad that ranks as the worst puck possession team in the league by Corsi standards (44.2 CF%) and who they defeated 4-3 in their only previous meeting this season. The Sharks’ recent struggles have been at no fault of Joe Pavelski as the stud center has racked up five goals and five assists over his current five game point streak. He’s a top tier option tonight and is slated to be joined by long-time partner Joe Thornton and Dainius Zubrus on the top forward line. Veteran Patrick Marleau headlines a very formidible second line with Matthew Nieto and Joel Ward on his wings. On defense, Brent Burns is a unique animal. The 6’5” beast not only averages nearly 27 minutes of ice-time per game, but he’s also racked up five goals and six assists over the last nine games and his 150 SOG is ranked third in the entire NHL. If you can afford him, he’s arguably the top defenisve play on the board.
Elite Options
COL: Gabriel Landeskog, Matt Duchene, Tyson Barrie
SAN: Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton, Brent Burns
Secondary Options
COL: Nathan MacKinnon, Jarome Iginla, Alex Tanguay, John Mitchell, Erik Johnson, Francois Beauchemin
SAN: Patrick Marleau, Joel Ward, Justin Braun