This could very will be the Avalanche’s final game at the Pepsi Center if they don’t win Game 4 Thursday against San Jose, with Game 5 at the Shark Tank on Saturday.
The Sharks have a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven second round Stanley Cup playoff series and teams with a 3-1 lead in series have advanced 90.5 percent of the time (277-29).
The Sharks are 10-1 in series in which they have taken a 3-1 lead, and the Avalanche have lost all four series when they’ve fallen behind 3-1.
On a positive note, the Avalanche haven’t lost two games in a row since March 11-15 to Carolina and Anaheim, though both were at home.
Also, it looks like Matt Calvert will play after missing Game 3 with an upper-body injury. He skated for the second day in a row Thursday while wearing a regular jersey.
“We’ll see how he gets through this morning and everything, but I think there’s a good possibility, yes,… coach Jared Bednar said after the morning skate.
The Avalanche need to have a much better start than they did Tuesday in their 4-2 loss, when they fell behind 2-0 late in the first period, and eliminate the turnovers and poor puck decisions they made. Round 2 schedule All times Mountain Time Friday – San Jose 5, Avalanche 2 Sunday – Avalanche 4, San Jose 3 Tuesday – San Jose 4, Avalanche 2 Thursday 8 p.m. -- at Pepsi Center Saturday 8 p.m. -- at San Jose * Monday TBD – at Pepsi Center * Wednesday May 8, TBD – at San Jose *If necessary
“Video doesn’t lie, so when you look through it we were forcing too many plays, especially through the first 30 minutes of the game,… Bednar said. “The number of turnovers that I calculated is high and as the game goes on it diminishes and in turn we get more scoring chances and more shots at the net instead of them.
“It’s a pretty clear picture and I think our guys are good with it. It’s going to become tougher and tougher to create offense and we have to make sure that our decisions are good.…
Captain Gabriel Landeskog talked about playing with “desperation and urgency… from the opening faceoff.
“We learned during the season that if you don’t respond right away then it can be hard to respond,… he said. “Ultimately that’s what led to our slide in midseason. We kind of pushed it forward, kind of hoping we’d get going, but at this time of the year you don’t have time for that. We want to bounce back right away, no doubt, especially here on home ice.
“We didn’t think this was going to be an easy series. We knew they’re a good team. We knew this was going to be tough, and if you expect it to be tough at least you’re not surprised when it is. We dropped a game, we would like to have that one back, but here we are down 2-1 on home ice. We’re feeling good and it’s a matter of responding tonight.…
Bednar said several players need to be more productive.
“We’re still sort of fighting to find our footing against a real good team,… he said. “There’s a number of guys on our team that need to elevate their game and get back to the peak of their performance, and I think they can do that.…
The projected lineup Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon - Alexander Kerfoot Colin Wilson -- Carl Soderberg - Mikko Rantanen Matt Calvert -- J.T. Compher -- Matt Nieto Gabriel Bourque -- Tyson Jost -- Derick Brassard
Samuel Girard -- Cale Makar Nikita Zadorov -- Tyson Barrie Ian Cole -- Erik Johnson
Philipp Grubauer Semyon Varlamov