The San Jose Sharks take their 4 game win streak on the road against the Minnesota Wild at the Excel Energy Center. This game will allow Team Teal to retake first in a tight Pacific Division race.
The Minnesota Wild are playing for their playoff lives battling with a handful of teams for one of the two wildcard spots in the Western Conference. The San Jose Sharks will be in be in for a tough match up against a revamped Wild roster.
This game carries a lot of weight considering Joe Thornton has the opportunity to overtake Stan Mikita for sole possession of 14th all time on the all time points list. It’s not far-fetched considering Jumbo has been on a ridiculous point pace lately scoring 9 in his last 10 games.
The San Jose Sharks are coming off an emotional overtime win against St. Louis and with a win this evening in St. Paul they will have their 4th 5 game winning streak of this impressive season. This team has been able to do this despite being without two of their best players Evander Kane and Erik Karlsson.
In their absences players like Brent Burns, Timo Meier, and Marcus Sorensen have really elevated their game it’s allowed the Sharks to score at least 3 goals in all 4 of their games during the home stand.
It appears that the San Jose Sharks will be trotting out the same line up as their previous game against the St. Louis blues here’s how the line-ups shake out for both teams.
San Jose Sharks
Forward Combinations
Timo Meier ~ Logan Couture ~ Joe Pavelski
Joonas Donskoi ~ Tomas Hertl ~ Gustav Nyquist
Marcus Sorensen~ Joe Thornton ~ Kevin Labanc
Micheal Haley ~ Barclay Goodrow ~ Melker Karlsson
Defensive Pairings
Radim Simek ~ Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard ~ Tim Heed
Brendan Dillon ~ Justin Braun
Goalie
Projected Starter ~Martin Jones
Backup ~ Aaron Dell
Minnesota Wild
Forward Combinations
Jordan Greenway ~ Eric Staal ~ Jason Zucker
Zach Parise ~ Victor Rask ~Kevin Fiala
Ryan Donato ~ Joel Eriksson Ek ~ Pontus Aberg
Marcus Foligno ~ Eric Fehr ~ J. T. Brown
Defensive Pairings
Ryan Suter ~ Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin ~ Brad Hunt
Greg Pateryn ~Anthony Bitetto
Goalie
Projected Starter ~ Devin Dubnyk
Backup ~ Alex Stalock
Puck drop for tonight’s game is at 5:00 PM PT live at the Excel Energy Center. The game is televised on NBCSCA and the audio is streamed via the San Jose Sharks official app courtesy of 98.5 KFOX