The San Jose Sharks Seek to Destroy the Ducks in Anaheim

SAN JOSE, CA - DECEMBER 27: Nick Ritchie #37 of the Anaheim Ducks skates with the puck against Justin Braun #61 at SAP Center on December 27 2018 in San Jose, California (Photo by Brandon Magnus/NHLI via Getty Images)
SAN JOSE, CA - DECEMBER 27: Nick Ritchie #37 of the Anaheim Ducks skates with the puck against Justin Braun #61 at SAP Center on December 27 2018 in San Jose, California (Photo by Brandon Magnus/NHLI via Getty Images)

The San Jose Sharks take part in the second night of back to back games against the Anaheim Ducks.

Team Teal is looking to bounce back against the Anaheim Ducks tonight at the Honda Center. The San Jose Sharks are coming off a tough 4 – 2 loss to the lowly Los Angeles Kings.

Overall they played okay against the Kings all things considered. The unexpected late scratch of Logan Couture threw the team off a bit, but they adjusted and Team Teal was leading heading into the third frame. However the San Jose Sharks were unable to keep up and eventually surrendered 3 unanswered goals in the final 10 minutes of the game.

The San Jose Sharks have lost 4 straight games for the firs time in 2019. This team is hoping to steady the ship against another ailing Southern California franchise. The Anaheim Ducks are a lottery team battling with both Vancouver and the Rangers for a bottom five-spot in the league.

However a match-up against arguably their biggest divisional rival will definitely amp up the intensity for this lackluster Ducks squad. This team might be a little boring to watch but they’ve still been able to patch together some wins of late. They’ve gone 6 – 4 – 0 in their previous 10 games.

Much of the that success can be credited to the Ducks All Star netminder John Gibson. Since returning to Anaheim on March 1 he’s posted an impressive 0.926 save percentage, per naturalstattrick. The San Jose Sharks are in for a tough assignment with the 25-year-old almost certainly getting the nod as the starter.

With the questions surrounding the San Jose Sharks roster management made the move to recall forward Dylan Gambrell and blueliner Nick DeSimone. They also reassigned Jacob Middleton to the Barracuda.

Don’t expect either of these recent call ups to get slotted into the line-up tonight, but we all shouldn’t be surprised if we hear about a late scratch considering how the Sharks health is going. Don’t expect Pavelski out there tonight and Couture is a game-time decision, but Aaron Dell is confirmed as the starter for Team Teal.

Puck drop for tonight’s game is at 7:00 PM PT live at the Honda Center. The game is televised on the NHL Network 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 and Sign Up Today!