Avalanche Win Season Opener on Sakic Night; Defeat Sharks 5-2

On an emotional night for the city of Colorado, who had just seen their baseball team clinch the Wild Card spot, the Colorado Avalanche opened the NHL season at home, retiring Joe Sakic's number in a stunning pre-game ceremony. Whether it was the energy and emotions of the ceremony or the fact that Colorado's off-season acquisitions are the real deal has yet to be seen, but the Avalanche, who were one of the worst offensive teams in the NHL a year ago, never gave up a lead to San Jose, winning by a dominating score of 5-2.

Colorado started the scoring early in the first period and never let up until the third, when they already had the comfortable 3 goal lead. Darcy Tucker re-directed a John-Michael Liles point shot 2 minutes into the game to give the Avalanche the 1-0 lead. But just under 4 minutes later, Patrick Marleau, freshly removed from his captaincy, trailed on a play resulting from a Ryane Clowe turnover, and took a pass from Joe Pavelski to score an easy goal to tie the game 1-1. But once again the Avalanche scored fast, as Wojtek Wolski was the recipient of a puck that bounced off Marc-Edouard Vlasic's glove and landed near the corner of the goal, where Wolski tapped it in easily past a sprawling Evgeni Nabokov.
The second period didn't get any better for the Sharks. Cody McLeod and Chris Stewart went on a fast break, and Stewart's shot rebounded off Nabokov right to McLeod for an easy bury to make the lead 3-1. Patrick Marleau once again scored for the Sharks soon after on the power play, in similar fashion to Wolski's goal earlier in the game. Dan Boyle's shot from the point bounced off Pavelski, and the puck settled near the corner of the net in front of Marleau who simply had to tap it in past Craig Anderson. But just a minute later, Wolski scored his second goal, and Liles added a 5th insurance goal on the power play to finish the scoring in the second period and the game.

Craig Anderson was the star of the game, especially in the third period, as he totaled 38 saves on 40 shots in the game, and was a perfect 19 for 19 in the third period. San Jose, who had one of the best power plays in the league last year, converted only 1 for 6 opportunities, including a failed 2 minute 5 on 3 chance in the third period. The Avalanche looked in-sync despite acquiring new members Matt Duchene and Kyle Quincey, but Duchene, despite not having a point, made a great rookie debut as he was swarming the puck and had 2 breakaway chances, both of which were saved by a Nabokov poke-check. Kyle Quincey helped set up one of Duchene's breakaways, and ended the night with an assist and a +2 rating. The Sharks, on the other hand, looked terribly out of sync, especially the much talked about first line. Dany Heatley only had 3 shots (several were blocked) and was a -3 rating. Joe Thornton was around the puck a lot less than usual and ended with a -1, while Devin Setoguchi, who was one of the hardest working skaters for San Jose, ended with a -2. The beginning of the season doesn't get any easier for San Jose, as they now travel to Anaheim, the team that eliminated them from the first round of the playoffs last year, and then Los Angeles, another young and upstart team similar to Colorado.