(8) COLORADO AVALANCHE vs (1) SAN JOSE SHARKS<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Avs are living proof that the sum of a team\u2019s parts can create a greater whole than many individual superstars can. They didn\u2019t have a Crosby, an Ovechkin, a Kane \u2013 but their core of speedy, tenacious, defensively responsible forwards worked extremely well together. Paul Stastny quietly had another strong season in a playmaking role; Chris Stewart delivered on his former first-round promise with a 28-goal season; rookie Matt Duchene emerged as one of the NHL\u2019s top \u201ccoach\u2019s pets,\u201d a two-way player every team wishes it had.<\/p>\n
The Avs\u2019 also did a decent job stopping opponents from scoring. The \u201cD\u201d wasn\u2019t flashy but guys like John-Michael Liles and Kyle Quincey ate minutes and did enough to support veteran goaltender Craig Anderson, who had a breakout year when finally given a chance to start.<\/p>\n
But can this plucky group have a chance against the mighty and deep San Jose Sharks? Love them or hate them, they remain a powerhouse franchise. The line of Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley was the best in the league for the first half of the season and its secondary scoring from Ryan Clowe, Joe Pavelski and Devon Setoguchi is excellent. ![\"Sports](\"http:\/\/affiliates.commissionaccount.com\/processing\/impressions.asp?btag=a_3953b_677\")
<\/p>\n
San Jose\u2019s blueline, featuring the stud Dan Boyle and other great skaters like Marc-Edouard Vlasic, is solid as can be. It\u2019s handled much more developed and star-studded forward groups than what Colorado will throw at them, so I have to think it will be up to the challenge.<\/p>\n
In theory, the Sharks should have the goaltending advantage. Evgeni Nabokov plays 70-plus games a year and consistently posts outstanding numbers. But he melted down it the postseason last year, going 2-4 with a 2.82 goal against average and .890 save percentage. He was also putrid for Russia during the Olympics.<\/p>\n
Nabokov\u2019s question marks \u2013 is he a big-game goalie? \u2013 reflect San Jose as a whole. Year in, year out, they dominate the regular season only to flop in crunch time. Thornton, Marleau and Heatley have all yet to prove that they can be clutch players. Eventually, the Sharks\u2019 demons could come back to haunt them yet again in these playoffs.<\/p>\n
However, the Sharks problems won\u2019t surface in round one. Colorado has been a nice story this season but the Avs are ridiculously ahead of schedule. Half the guys on their team are playing their first career playoff games; they\u2019re not ready to knock off a No. 1 seed just yet, though they may give the Sharks a better run than expected.<\/p>\n
Prediction: <\/strong>Sharks in six.<\/p>\nCLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT SPORTSBOOK.COM\u2019S NHL HOCKEY BETTING LINES FOR THIS WEEK’S MATCHUPS!!!!<\/h3>\n
<\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 7 game series between the Colorado Avalanche and the San Jose Sharks opens on Wednesday night, here’s the odds and our prediction for the series. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[10330,27701,27694,27707,27708,27709,27710,27711,27712,21458,27691,27692,27674],"class_list":["post-21176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nhl","tag-10330","tag-2010-stanley-cup-futures","tag-2010-stanley-cup-playoff-picks","tag-avalanche-sharks-lines","tag-avalanche-sharks-picks","tag-avalanche-sharks-predictions","tag-avalanche-vs-sharks-series-preview","tag-avalanche-vs-sharks","tag-colorado-avalanche-vs-san-jose-sharks-predictions","tag-hockey-betting-picks","tag-stanley-cup-playoff-picks","tag-stanley-cup-playoff-prediction","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21176"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108174,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21176\/revisions\/108174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}