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Bednar on Sharks: 'Tough team, no question; given us trouble all year' |
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Rick Sadowski
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Well, the suspense is over. The Avalanche will play San Jose in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with Game 1 Friday at the SAP Center. The full schedule hasn't been released yet.
The Avalanche didn’t practice Wednesday, but coach Jared Bednar was available for a handful of media – where was everybody? – and he talked about the Sharks in very general terms.
Bednar watched the Sharks stun Vegas 5-4 in overtime Tuesday in Game 7. They scored four power-play goals in 4:01 in the third period after Cody Eakins was assessed a major cross-checking penalty against Joe Pavelski to grab a 4-3 lead; the Golden Knights tied it 4-4 on Jonathan Marchessault’s goal with 47 seconds left; and Barclay Goodrow scored 18:19 into the extra period.
“I tried to watch the game as a fan,” Bednar said. “Obviously we have the tape this morning that we can break down and look at coaching aspects of it, but I thought that game was super exciting. I was on the edge of my seat the whole night.”
San Jose finished second in the Pacific Division with 46 wins and 101 points. They scored 289 goals, tying them with Calgary for second in the NHL behind Tampa Bay (325).
Defenseman Brent Burns led the Sharks in scoring with 83 points (16 goals, 67 assists), followed by Tomas Hertl (35 goals, 74 points), Logan Couture (27 goals, 70 points), Timo Meier (30 goals, 66 points), Pavelski (38 goals, 64 points) and Gustav Nyquist (22 goals, 60 points). Goalie Martin Jones had 36 wins, a 2.94 goals-against average and .896 save percentage.
“They’re a real good team, a hundred-point team,” Bednar said. “Big, strong, fast, lots of shooters, mobile D-corps, they’re getting the goaltending now. They’re a tough team, no question. They’ve given us trouble all year.”
The Sharks won all three regular-season games against the Avalanche: 5-4 on Jan. 2 at the Pepsi Center, 4-3 on March 1 in San Jose, and 5-2 in the April 6 season finale in San Jose.
But the Avalanche also lost all three games to the Flames before knocking them off in five games in the first round.
“Well, playoffs are a different scenario, right?” Bednar said. “You start over from scratch and it’s best-of-7 and there’s adjustments to be made in the middle of the series. Our goal will be to go in there and have a real good start and pick up where we left off against Calgary.
“Our guys should be confident based on the way we played down the stretch and in the playoffs. At the same time, we know that San Jose’s a really good team and we’re going to have to play our best. We’re going to have to be even better than we were against Calgary in order to beat them. They understand that, but I think that we all believe it’s possible if we play the way that we can. That to me is the starting point to this series.”
Bednar said the time off since last Friday’s 5-1 series-clinching win in Calgary has enabled players to recover from assorted nagging injuries and illnesses. Colorado was off Wednesday after practicing Monday and Tuesday and will work on special teams Thursday.
“It’s definitely a good thing for us,” he said. “We had some guys that were sick, we had some guys that were injured. There’s a good chance or possibility that we’re going into this round healthy and rested, and that’s always a good thing.
“It hasn’t been too long a layoff. We’ve given our guys a couple days off, we had a couple good days of practice and now the preparation – we’ve already been working on it -- now the preparation begins for San Jose. Now we have our focus.”
Defenseman Samuel Girard, who missed the last three games against the Flames with an upper-body injury, has been practicing while wearing a non-contact jersey and could be available Friday.
“I’d say there’s a good chance he’ll be healthy, I just don’t know yet,” Bednar said. “That will be determined over the next couple days.”
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