After a win in St Louis, the San Jose Sharks come home to face the Seattle Kraken
By Conor Power
A shutout win in St Louis saw the San Jose Sharks pick up their third win since the all-star break, and the Sharks are smiling after a tough season. As we approach the year's conclusion, the Sharks will be looking to add a few more points to the 43 they already have in the season's final nine games. That will start tonight as the battle of the sea commences in the Shark Tank as the Seattle Kraken face the Sharks.
Neither of these two teams has playoff aspirations at this point in the season, and both are looking ahead to the summer and future seasons. That means we're looking at the players whose contracts expire in the summer and hope to keep a job in the NHL, whether with their current team or a new one elsewhere. San Jose will seek continued development from their young core to extract some positives from this tragic season.
With no changes to the lineup lately in the close defeats, it's tough to expect anything other than the same roster after the win over the St Louis Blues. If Mackenzie Blackwood can shut the Kraken out as he did the Blues, there's every chance the Sharks could win two in a row, which has been extremely rare this season. We're almost to the end of this trainwreck of a season, and we will be released from the pain of Sharks fandom for a few months.
Projected Lineups
Seattle Kraken
Eeli Tolvanen - Matty Beniers - Oliver Bjorkstrand
Jaden Schwartz - Jared McCann - Jordan Eberle
Brandon Tanev - Yanni Gourde - Andre Burakovsky
Tye Kartye - Logan Morrison - Ryan Winterton
Brian Dumoulin - Adam Larsson
Jamie Oleksiak - Will Borgen
Ryker Evans - Justin Schultz
Philipp Grubauer
Joey Daccord
San Jose Sharks
Klim Kostin - Mikael Granlund - Fabian Zetterlund
William Eklund - Luke Kunin - Justin Bailey
Thomas Bordeleau - Nico Sturm - Mike Hoffman
Kevin Labanc - Ryan Carpenter - Filip Zadina
Mario Ferraro - Kyle Burroughs
Henry Thrun - Calen Addison
Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Jan Rutta
Mackenzie Blackwood
Devin Cooley
Puck Drop
A 7:30 PM puck drop from the Tank will see the Sharks play again. With just a possible 18 points remaining, the losses will consolidate the best odds to draft Macklin Celebrini first overall. There will be a lot to consider between now and the end of the season, so let's hope we see a Sharks win tonight against a beatable team in Seattle. Can the Sharks add the two points tonight?