San Jose Sharks look to build on shootout loss in Dallas when they face Minnesota Wild

A strong performance in front of Magnus Chrona last night allowed the San Jose Sharks to walk out of Dallas with a point. Against a contending team like the Dallas Stars, that’s a point to be proud of for this group. Now, there is a more winnable fixture to close out this back-to-back as the Sharks arrive in Minnesota to take on the Wild. These games are never easy but the Sharks have made a habit of playing well in them, so let’s hope we see that again tonight.

After Chrona played well last night in place of the absent Mackenzie Blackwood, who is still battling an injury, we can expect to see Kaapo Kahkonen return to the crease tonight for the team in teal. Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl are both still absent, but with both Mike Hoffman and Fabian Zetterlund getting banged up last night in Dallas, there could be more players away.

With just three games between now and the All-star break, the Sharks will be tasked with showing off their assets before then to try and maximise the return for those that they do not plan on bringing back to the the organization in the summer. Players that are getting hot now like Anthony Duclair are perfect examples as they are running up their value ahead of any potential bidding wars this week.

Projected Lineups

San Jose Sharks

Anthony Duclair - Mikael Granlund - Fabian Zetterlund
Filip Zadina - William Eklund - Luke Kunin
Justin Bailey - Nico Sturm - Kevin Labanc
Mike Hoffman - Ryan Carpenter - Givani Smith
Mario Ferraro - Kyle Burroughs
Henry Thrun - Jan Rutta
Nikita Okhotiuk - Calen Addison
Kaapo Kahkonen
Magnus Chrona

Minnesota Wild

Kirill Kaprizov - Joel Eriksson Ek - Matthew Boldy
Marcus Johansson - Marco Rossi - Mats Zuccarello
Brandon Duhaime - Connor Dewar - Ryan Hartman
Mason Shaw - Jake Lucchini - Vinni Lettieri
Jacob Middleton - Brock Faber
Jonas Brodin - Declan Chisholm
Jon Merril - Zach Bogosian
Marc-Andre Fleury
Filip Gustavsson

Puck Drop

This is a 4 p.m. puck drop from the state of a thousand lakes. San Jose will be looking to build off the point they earned in Dallas last night in that shootout defeat. They know that they can play like that in front of Kahkonen, and they can steal another point, or dare I say two, from another team in green from the Central Division.