Tough test for the Avalanche tonight in San Jose, the NHL's last game heading into the three-day break for Christmas. The Sharks are 3-5-1 in their past nine games but are 12-1-3 at home this season and 7-0-1 there since a 4-2 loss to Vancouver on Nov. 7.
Antti Niemi will start in goal for the Sharks, and he owns a 6-1-3 career record against the Avalanche with one shutout, a 2.31 goals-against average and .917 save percentage.
Semyon Varlamov will start for the Avalanche, which has gone 11-5-1 on the road. He's 3-3-1 with a 3.05 goals-against average and .909 save percentage in his career against San Jose but is playing well with a 3-0-2 record in his past five starts with a 1.90 GAG and .940 save percentage.
Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic played for Avalanche coach Patrick Roy in Quebec and has some interesting things to say about him in the San Jose Mercury News.
The Sharks will be without rookie Tomas Hertl, who is expected to miss about a month with a knee injury he sustained last week on a knee-on-knee hit from the Kings' Dustin Brown. Brown was assessed a major penalty but wasn't suspended. Hertl has 15 goals and 10 assists.
Roy told me last Friday that defenseman Ryan Wilson would probably play against the Sharks, but he's changed his mind and will stick with the same group he used Saturday in Los Angeles: Tyson Barrie, Andre Benoit, Nate Guenin, Jan Hejda, Erik Johnson and Cory Sarich.
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Avalanche center Matt Duchene was named the NHL's third star for the week ending Sunday. St. Louis right wing Chris Stewart and Pittsburgh center Sidney Crosby were the first and second stars, respectively.
Duchene had two goals and seven assists in four games. He had two assists in the Avalanche's 6-2 win against Dallas; a goal and an assist in a 3-2 loss to the Stars; a goal and two assists in a 4-2 win against Edmonton, and two assists in a 3-2 shootout loss to Los Angeles.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Duchene is the first Avalanche player to collect two or more points in four consecutive games since Paul Stastny did it in October 2008.
Stewart had six goals and one assist in four games, while Crosby had two goals and six assists in four games.
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With 48 points in 35 games, the Avalanche is in third place in the Central Division, four points behind second-place St. Louis and three ahead of fourth-place Minnesota.
Regulation and overtime wins (not shootouts) are significant in case of a tie at the end of the season, and the Avalanche has a 21-15 lead over the Wild. The Blues also have 21 regulation and overtime wins.
The Blues are at Calgary tonight, and the Wild is at Philadelphia.