{"id":1310026,"date":"2019-05-07T16:04:01","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T22:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/sharks-hope-for-pavelskis-return-before-game-7-against-avalanche\/"},"modified":"2019-05-07T16:04:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T22:04:01","slug":"sharks-hope-for-pavelskis-return-before-game-7-against-avalanche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/sharks-hope-for-pavelskis-return-before-game-7-against-avalanche\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharks hope for Pavelski\u2019s return before Game 7 against Avalanche"},"content":{"rendered":"
Colorado Avalanche left wing Gabriel Landeskog (92) is congratulated by teammates Samuel Girard (49), Nathan MacKinnon (29) and Cale Makar (8) after scoring a game-winning, overtime goal against the San Jose Sharks in Game 6 of an NHL hockey second-round playoff series, Monday, May 6, 2019, in Denver. Colorado won 4-3 in overtime. (AP Photo\/Jack Dempsey)<\/strong>
AP | FR42408 AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SAN JOSE, Calif. \u2014 Captain Joe Pavelski was getting staples put into his bloody head when the San Jose Sharks staged an epic comeback in Game 7 of the opening round against Vegas.<\/p>\n

Now that the Sharks have been forced into another ultimate game after missing a chance to eliminate Colorado in an overtime loss on the road, they are hopeful of getting their leader back on the ice for the first time since then.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest question heading into Game 7 at the Shark Tank on Wednesday night (9 p.m. EDT, NBCSN) is whether Pavelski will be healthy enough to make a dramatic return against the Avalanche. Coach Peter DeBoer said that will happen as soon as doctors give him the OK.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not hiding anything,\u201d DeBoer said Tuesday. \u201cHe\u2019s day to day. He\u2019s getting better every day. We\u2019re going to make a decision on game days whether he\u2019ll be available or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

The winner of the game advances to play the winner of Tuesday night\u2019s Game 7 between Dallas and St Louis.<\/p>\n

Pavelski\u2019s injury happened midway through the third period in Game 7 against Vegas on April 23 with San Jose trailing 3-0. He was cross-checked by Cody Eakin after a faceoff and then bumped by Paul Stastny before falling awkwardly to the ice head first. The impact of Pavelski\u2019s helmet slamming the ice knocked him out briefly and caused him to bleed from his head.<\/p>\n

A dazed Pavelski was helped off the ice by his teammates and then had eight staples put in his head to stop the bleeding. While that was going on, his teammates scored four power-play goals during the major penalty to Eakin that even Pavelski acknowledged was not warranted.<\/p>\n

San Jose ultimately won the game on Barclay Goodrow\u2019s overtime goal to advance to the second round. Pavelski was unable even to travel to Colorado for Games 3 and 4 but got back on the ice while his teammates were away last week. He made an emotional appearance at the Shark Tank during the third period of Game 5 to fire up the crowd and traveled to Denver for Game 6 where he took part in the morning skate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt still really is day-to-day,\u201d Pavelski said before Game 6. \u201cWish I had a set-in-stone answer \u2014 go here, do this and be ready. We\u2019re taking everything into play.\u201d<\/p>\n

No matter what happens with Pavelski, the Sharks will need better performances from several of their other forwards who have been mostly invisible this series. San Jose was supposed to have the better depth up front but that hasn\u2019t been the case so far.<\/p>\n

Joe Thornton and Kevin Labanc have gone five straight games without a point, Evander Kane and Marcus Sorensen haven\u2019t recorded a point for four straight games and the fourth line has generated almost no offense.<\/p>\n

Colorado has six forwards with at least two goals this series, including secondary options like J.T. Compher, Tyson Jost, Colin Wilson and Matt Nieto. The Sharks have just three with Couture\u2019s three goals all coming in a Game 3 win, Tomas Hertl\u2019s two coming in a Game 5 victory and Timo Meier scoring one of his two into an empty net.<\/p>\n

Compher scored twice in regulation in Game 6 and assisted on Jost\u2019s goal as well as the Avalanche managed to get the game into overtime despite its top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen being on the ice for all three San Jose goals in regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been unbelievable all playoffs, all season,\u201d Compher said of Colorado\u2019s Big Three. \u201cThe depth guys, we\u2019ve got to step up when we can. Guys were stepping up all over the place and that\u2019s why we\u2019re in the spot we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

That spot is one win away from Colorado\u2019s first appearance in the conference finals since 2002. Getting there hasn\u2019t been easy. The Avalanche had to knock off the top seed in the West, Calgary, in the first round and has never led in this series with the Sharks taking all the odd-numbered games and Colorado answering after that.<\/p>\n

Even the Game 6 win at home proved treacherous with the Avalanche blowing a one-goal lead three times before finally winning on Landeskog\u2019s overtime goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew it wasn\u2019t supposed to be easy, nobody said it was going to be,\u201d Landeskog said. \u201cFor us we try to reload. As frustrating as it was to keep losing those leads we tried to reset and go back at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Facing elimination isn\u2019t a new feeling for the Sharks, who won three win-or-go-home games in the first round against Vegas when they overcame a 3-1 series deficit for the first time in franchise history.<\/p>\n

This veteran team is playing its third Game 7 at home in the past four years, having beaten Nashville in the second round in 2016 and the Golden Knights two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of a fear or a nervousness there\u2019s an excitement about them,\u201d DeBoer said. \u201cWe do have guys that have participated in them in the past. Does that count for anything? I don\u2019t know. I\u2019d like to think it does. I do know this. Our guys have a comfort level in big games.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado Avalanche left wing Gabriel Landeskog (92) is congratulated by teammates Samuel Girard (49), Nathan MacKinnon (29) and Cale Makar (8) after scoring a game-winning, overtime goal against the San Jose Sharks in Game 6 of an NHL hockey second-round playoff series, Monday, May 6, 2019, in Denver. Colorado won 4-3 in overtime. (AP Photo\/Jack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 22:56:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}