Sharks at Avalanche
Life without Joe Thornton is starting to treat the San Jose Sharks better as they finish a five-game road trip Tuesday against the Colorado Avalanche. San Jose lost its first three games without Thornton, who went down with a knee injury Jan. 23, but has responded with 3-1 victories over Columbus and Carolina to move into second place in the Pacific Division - 10 points behind Vegas.
Colorado, which sits one point out of wild-card position in the Western Conference, has won eight straight at the Pepsi Center as it returns home after going 2-3-1 on a pair of three-game road trips sandwiched around the All-Star break. The Avalanche welcomed the return of No. 1 goaltender Semyon Varlamov, who made 29 saves in Saturday's 3-0 loss at Winnipeg after missing 11 contests with a groin injury. "I thought (Varlamov) played great," Colorado coach Jared Bednar told reporters. "It was great to see him back in the net and he was our best player (Saturday). So, we've got to regroup and get a day off and get ready for Tuesday against San Jose." The Avalanche won the first of three meetings this season 5-3 on Jan. 18 behind a pair of goals from Nathan MacKinnon (team highs of 24 goals and 61 points), who will miss his third straight game Tuesday because of an upper-body injury.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, NBCS California (San Jose), Altitude (Colorado)
ABOUT THE SHARKS (28-16-8): Defending Norris Trophy winner Brent Burns (nine goals, team-high 44 points) has three goals and 16 assists in his last 16 games and will be counted on even more with Thornton out of the lineup. Burns, who had a goal and an assist Sunday versus Carolina, is a team-worst minus-21, which coach Peter DeBoer told reporters "he could care less about.'' Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic (nine goals, 21 points, plus-4) has scored four goals in his last nine games and is averaging 22 minutes, 42 seconds of ice time - second on the team to Burns (25:14).
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (28-19-4): Alexander Kerfoot (12 goals, 32 points) has taken MacKinnon's place on the top line but the rookie hasn't recorded a point since his promotion. Mikko Rantanen (17 goals, 50 points) has also been quiet while Gabriel Landeskog (19 goals, 40 points) had two assists in Thursday's 4-3 overtime victory in Edmonton. Tyson Barrie has two assists and is a minus-1 while playing an average of 20:11 in three games since missing 13 with a fractured bone in his right hand.
OVERTIME
1. Burns leads the NHL with 222 shots and Joe Pavelski is second on San Jose with 136, marking the largest margin between a team's top two in the league.
2. Colorado takes the third-fewest shots on goal per game at 29.9 but is sixth in scoring at 3.2 goals per contest through Sunday's games.
3. The Sharks are 0-3-2 in their last five games versus the Central Division.