San Jose Sharks Look to Pounce into Playoffs Versus the Florida Panthers

The San Jose Sharks seek to extend their league leading 6 game winning streak versus the pesky Florida Panthers.

The San Jose Sharks are coming off an emotional victory over the Winnipeg Jets. The Captain Joe Pavelski sealed the win for Team Teal in the final seconds with a perfectly placed deflection to beat Hellabuyck. The Sharks are looking to extend the momentum they built into their next contest against the Florida Panthers.

The depth of the Sharks continues to shine with players up and down their roster contributing on a nightly basis. It’s propelled them to a perfect month of March, however it’s about to face another tough task.

After experiencing an extreme high from winning a game in its final moments the San Jose Sharks came back down to earth after learning the diagnosis of  Radim Simek knee injury that he suffered during the first period versus Winnipeg.

Earlier in day San Jose Sharks General Manager announced via the teams Twitter account the details surrounding Simek’s future…

This was devastating news to everyone in Sharks Territory. Radim Simek had quickly become a fan favorite while playing along-side Brent Burns. Ever since he joined the roster on December 2nd in a game in Montreal he’s helped solidify Team Teal’s blueline.

Nevertheless the San Jose Sharks will need to trek on with Joakim Ryan slotting into the line-up on the left side of Brent Burns.

With a dozen games remaining  every game technically has playoff implications, however according to NHL Networks Jamie Hersch the Sharks can take the first step towards their first Stanley Cup.

This would make the San Jose Sharks the second team in the league and the first in the Western Conference  to clinch a playoff berth. However there is little doubt that Coach Bob Boughner and the Florida Panthers will try to prevent that from happening tonight at the SAP Center.

The Florida Panthers have had a lackluster season thus far and are 9 points out of the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. One of the few bright spots this season for the South Paws is Aleksander Barkov. He’s scored 77 points this season and has 15 in his last 10 games. Team Teal will need to keep him in check if they want to extend their winning streak to 7 games.

The line-up will look a slightly different from last game with the loss of Simek. Both Erik Karlsson and Evander Kane are still absent but the San Jose Sharks are still icing an explosive roster.

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

Joakim Ryan ~ Brent Burns

Marc-Edouard ~ Tim Heed

Brendan Dillon ~ Justin Braun

Goalie
Projected Starter ~ Martin Jones

Backup ~ Aaron Dell

Florida Panthers

Forward Combinations

Jonathan Huberdeau ~ Alexsander Barkov ~ Evgenii Dadonov

Frank Vatrano ~ Vincent Trocheck ~ Mike Hoffman

Dryden Hunt ~ Riley Sheahan ~ Troy Brouwer

Jame McGinn ~ Henrik Borgstrom ~ Jayce Hawryluk

Defensive Pairings

Michael Matheson ~ Aaron Ekblad

Keith Yandle ~ Mackenzie Weegar

Mark Pysyk ~ Josh Brown

Goalie

Projected Starter ~ Sam Montembeault

Backup  goalie ~ Roberto Luongo

Puck drop for tonight’s game is at 7:30 PM PT live at the SAP Center. The game is televised on NBCSCA and the audio is streamed via the San Jose Sharks official app courtesy of 98.5 KFOX.

The game will also be streamed along with plenty of other NHL games all season long on ESPN+. If you don’t like it, cancel anytime! ESPN+ will stream more than 180 NHL games—an average of seven games a week—throughout the 2018–19 season, including the exclusive nightly highlight show In The Crease. Click here to sign up today!