Colorado Has San Jose Asking, 'What's My Line?'

by Susan Slusser

Filed under: Avalanche, Sharks, NHL Playoffs

SAN JOSE - The Sharks and the Avalanche are the poster boys for a postseason in which most of the games are decided by a goal and top seeds are vulnerable.

Both games of this first-round Western Conference series have been one-goal affairs, with top-seeded San Jose needing overtime on Friday to avoid an 0-2 deficit in the series.

Now, the Sharks are getting a reputation for falling to lesser seeds early in the postseason, but getting Colorado as the eighth seed was supposed to be a favorable matchup for San Jose. The Sharks are bigger and more experienced than the Avalanche.

And yet, Colorado has its own strengths. The Avs are younger, faster, and they have the superior goalie, at least judging by the first two games.

Is speed better than size in the modern NHL? Colorado forward Matt Duchene said that might be the case with the post-lockout rules, and Avs forward T.J. Galiardi, asked to take a side on speed vs. size, answered, "I'd say speed, but they have speed, too. We have to contain them as much as we can, keep them to the outside, especially their top line. They have a lot of talent.

"But our main thing is our speed and if we use it, we're hard to contain."

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