After the final breakthrough and first win of the season against the Anaheim Ducks, the Colorado Avalanche head off on a mini three-game road trip to the West Coast. Today is the first of these three games against the winless San Jose Sharks.

Colorado avalanche

After the final breakthrough and first win against the Ducks, Colorado hopes to continue its winning streak and build on its last game against the Sharks tonight. The last game was arguably anything but easy for the Avs as they controlled much of the game but still found themselves in overtime and conceded a few unfortunate goals throughout the game. Despite all of that, they still found a way to finally get their first win of the year and put it all together in one game.

On the bright side, there appears to be some reinforcements coming to this team that a lot of people weren’t expecting. Devon Towes will travel with the team on this trip but is unlikely to play on Sunday. Jonathan Drouin will not be traveling but it is hoped he will be back soon once the team returns.

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 undoubtedly struggled so far this season, which isn’t necessarily a surprise given that they’re a team that’s rebuilding. Like Colorado, they have actually suffered their fair share of injuries as well, with players like Macklin Celebrini currently out with injuries. Mackenzie Blackwood has probably been a bright spot for this team as he has kept the Sharks in the most games so 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

goalkeeper

Alexandar Georgiev will likely be in net again for Colorado tonight. He has slowly made an upward trend over the last few games and tonight presents another opportunity to develop his game and confidence. Opposing him in net will likely be Mackenzie Blackwood, who, as mentioned, has undoubtedly been a bright spot in most of this San Jose team’s games, with the exception of Friday’s most recent game against the Winnipeg Jets.