Avs Open Final Regular-Season Trip with Eyes on West's Top Seed

The Colorado Avalanche has its eyes on the West Division's top seed as it begins its final road trip of the regular season tonight at the San Jose Sharks.
"These are all important games for us, we are trying to fight our way up the standings here and catch Vegas," said head coach Jared Bednar. "We have a back-to-back coming up, so we are going to see multiple goalies, and we want to just make sure we are approaching it the same way. Play rested guys, play healthy guys, if guys are dinged up they may get a night off, but these are important games so we are out here to win all of them if we can."
After facing the Sharks on Monday and Wednesday in San Jose, the Avs will go to Southern California for a back-to-back at the Los Angeles Kings on Friday and Saturday before concluding the five-game trip at the Vegas Golden Knights on May 10.

Colorado currently sits in second in the West Division with 70 points and a 33-12-4 record. The squad trails Vegas by four points but has played one fewer game than the division foe, which is playing the third-place Minnesota Wild (68 points) tonight.
"Since the beginning of the season, we've talked about one goal and the whole team has been working towards that goal and we are still in the process of being better and better towards that goal," Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said. "Doesn't matter that there are seven or whatever the amount of games left, or where we are. It is still about looking to the past game, making sure that we understand the issues and making sure that we are getting ready to the best of our abilities towards playoffs. It doesn't really matter how many games or who we are playing, it is all about us being better and better, and that our details are 100 percent."
In total, the Avalanche has five games in eight days on the trip, the club's longest continuous trek of 2020-21, before finishing the regular season with another back-to-back against the Kings at home on May 12-13.
"It's kind of been almost the same schedule for a while now. We've been playing every other day for two months. In between games, you just kind of do whatever it takes to recover and get ready for the next one, whatever it is: treatment, stretching, whatever you need to get ready," said forward Andre Burakovsky. "I think it's really important to do that this time of year, especially when we have a really tight schedule the last couple games and then jumping into playoffs. You want to be as fresh as possible in playoffs, but we are also fighting for position here so we want to be as good as we can in these last couple games and get ready and win this one and then jump into the playoffs. I think it's really important just to do whatever you need to feel as good as possible."
The Avalanche added a few players to its taxi squad before setting out on the journey, recalling forwards Jayson Megna and Alex Newhook, defenseman Dennis Gilbert and goaltender Jonas Johansson from the American Hockey League's Colorado Eagles.
It is Newhook's first stint with the taxi squad after he made his professional debut with the Eagles on April 13.
"It's a very good possibility that he will play on this trip. He just joined our team, I wanted to let him settle in for a day here," said Bednar. "We are going to do some video work with him, we did some already today on the penalty kill. He's a guy that's been killing penalties both in college and now again with the Eagles, done a nice job there. He saw some video this morning, worked on that out in morning skate. I am going to show him some 5-on-5 stuff, make sure we brush him up on how we want to play and then we will consider him for some games here later on on the trip."
Newhook, the 16th overall selection in the 2019 NHL Draft, has netted five goals and four assists in eight games with AHL Colorado.

LINEUP NOTES & INJURY UPDATES

Ryan Graves will be back in the lineup tonight after missing Saturday's outing with an upper-body injury. It is unknown who will be scratched with his return, but it is likely Kyle Burroughs or Dan Renouf.
Fellow defenseman Jacob MacDonald has missed six games with a lower-body injury that he suffered during at-home workouts while the team was paused from action from April 16-21. He is on the trip as he is getting closer to a return.
Defensemen Samuel Girard and Bowen Byram are not on the trip with the team, but Girard could start skating with the squad when it returns to Denver next week. He is estimated to be out for two weeks after suffering a lower-body injury at the end of the game on Friday. Rookie D-man Byram skated with a small group last week, but the timeline of his return is unknown.
Forwards Matt Calvert and Logan O'Connor both remain out long term. O'Connor had surgery last week to help correct his lower-body injury and head coach Jared Bednar did not have a timeline on either skater.
View: Avalanche at Sharks Projected Lineup

NOTABLES

The Avs finished 4-0-0 against the Sharks at Ball Arena, the first time they've gone 4-0-0 or better against an opponent at home since 2007-08 versus the Edmonton Oilers (4-0-0).
Colorado ranks first in both shots per game (34.8-tied) and shots-against per game (25.5). The Avs pace the NHL in shot differential (plus-455), outshooting the opposition by an average of 9.29 shots per night.
The Avs are 28-2-3 when scoring three or more goals and 31-4-1 when allowing three or fewer, including a 27-1-0 mark when allowing two or less.
The Avalanche ranks among the NHL's top 10 in power play (sixth, 23.5 percent) and penalty killing (10th, 82.1 percent). Only once in the past 15 years has Colorado finished among the top 10 in both categories (2017-18).
The Avs have scored the first goal of the game 33 times this year, the most in the NHL. Colorado is 27-4-2 when scoring first, tied with Vegas for the most wins.
Gabriel Landeskog sits two goals shy of his eighth career 20-goal campaign. Only Joe Sakic and Milan Hejduk (both 11) have more 20-goal seasons since the franchise moved to Denver.

INTERVIEWS