The San Jose Sharks are favored on Monday night as they visit the Colorado Avalanche on NBCSN. The Sharks are battling for first place in the Pacific Division while the Avalanche have the worst record in the NHL. The Sharks have won six of the last ten in what has been a high scoring series of late with the last five going over the total. This is the back end of a home-and-home as the teams met on Saturday in San Jose.
Don't miss the ice action from the Pepsi Center at 9 p.m. ET on Monday, January 23, 2017. Catch every moment of the game live on NBCSN.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Monday schedule.
Odds Analysis
There is no advantage in terms of travel as both teams played on Thursday before starting this home-and-home series. The Sharks have been decent on the road winning 12 of their first 23 road games with 9 games going under, 5 going over with 9 pushes while the Avalanche have been terrible everywhere. Colorado was a miserable 5-17 in their first 22 home games with 10 games going over, 8 going under with 4 pushes.
Special Teams
The Sharks are just 22nd in the league on the power play at 16.8%. San Jose is scoring 2.6 goals per game which is 18th in the league. San Jose relies on defense and penalty killing to win games. They are 9th in the league in penalty killing at 83.2 % and they are 4th best in the league at 2.3 goals allowed.
The Avalanche are just 27th in the league on the power play at 13.6% and they are next to last in the league in goals scored per game at 2 per contest. They are poor on the penalty kill at 78.6% and last in the league in goals allowed at 3.4.
There is simply nothing to like about Colorado right now as they don’t play any defense and they don’t have enough scorers behind Matt Duchene and Nathan McKinnon that contribute. The Avalanche have a poor front office with Joe Sakic running the show so it is hard to see it getting better any time soon for Colorado.
Goalie Report
The Sharks could decide to give backup Aaron Dell the start on Monday since this is the second half of a home-and-home. Their top goalie is Martin Jones who is 23-16 with a 2.25 goals against average while Dell is 4-2 with a 1.97 goals against average.
The Avalanche lost top goaltender Semyon Varlamov to injury but whether it matters is debatable as the defense is awful and Varlamov wasn’t playing that great as he was 6-17 with a 3.38 goals against average. Backup Calvin Pickard is 7-12 with a 3.06 goals against average. The Avalanche called up minor league goalie Spencer Martin to serve as the backup to Pickard.
Colorado has been shopping Varlamov who has a $5.9 million cap hit over the next two seasons. The Avalanche would prefer to get something for Varlamov instead of losing him in the expansion draft.
Free NHL Picks
These teams have not met in almost a year as they played last February with the Avalanche winning 4-3 at home. The Avalanche have taken six of the last ten at home in this series with the last two going over the total.
San Jose is the superior team and it has become obvious that Colorado simply doesn’t have the talent to compete on a nightly basis. The Avalanche need their best players to play great and also get great goaltending just to have a chance. It hasn’t happened that often this season. It is hard to see them being competitive in this game so I will take San Jose to get the road win.
NHL Odds: Sharks 5, Avalanche 2
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