Frustrating

There are no words for how frustrating the Avs are right now. Game after game after game they have been completely outshot by the Sharks. The shots in the first period of the game were 12-2 in favor of the Sharks. Seriously, Avs? Two shots in a period will never win you hockey games. They were then outshot 17-9 in the second period (and outscored 3-0 in the period). Finally, the Avs outshot the Sharks 17-8 in the third period, but the game was well out of hand by that time. They lost this one in a huge 5-0 letdown.

Throughout this series the Avs have relied heavily on the play of Craig Anderson. He has been fantastic and totally stole game 3 for the Avs, but he is human. A goaltender can definitely save your butt from time to time, but your game plan cannot be 'let's just let our goaltender do all the work for us.'

It's hard to believe that game after game, so much of the play has been in the Avalanche's zone. Defensively the Avalanche clearly need some work. It's puzzling that in a series with so many shots going toward Anderson that Brett Clark has been a healthy scratch throughout. Clark is the Avs' top shot blocker and one of the leading shot blockers in the league, but he has yet to suit up in the playoffs.

The Avs got their butts kicked in this game, with a little assistance from the referees. The officials continue to call every little thing on the Avs and not much on the Sharks. The Avs however failed to put much on net and spent way too much time in their own defensive zone. The Sharks controlled the play for almost the entire game.

The one-sided refereeing is bound to continue in this series. The Avs will just have to continue to overcome that as much as possible and keep up their penalty killing. This sets up for a game 6 on Saturday that will be do or die for the Avs. They still have several players out with injuries (most notably Milan Hejduk, Peter Mueller and David Jones).

Either the Avs will find a way to spend some time in the San Jose zone next game or they are liable to exit the playoffs early. Or just maybe super-human Craig Anderson will show up again. It will be interesting to see how the Avalanche come out for game six.