In the final game of the 2018-19 regular season, the San Jose Sharks (45-27-9, 2nd Pacific) host the Colorado Avalanche (38-29-14, 5th Central) in, after a long bout of misfortune, a bid to enter the postseason with at least a tiny sliver of momentum. After the Sharks’ win over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday, our boys sit on a 2-8-1 record in their last 11 games, allowing 45 goals to boot, seemingly falling apart in all the worst ways at the worst possible time.
Adding injury to insult, Timo Meier, the Sharks’ leading point scorer and most effective driver of scoring chances at 5-on-5, left Thursday’s game at 9:26 of the third period after apparently injuring his left wrist during an awkward fall into the boards with defenseman Darnell Nurse.