San Jose Sharks prepare to return home to the SAP Center as they host the Anaheim Ducks
By Conor Power
The rebuild continues in the Bay Area for the San Jose Sharks. We got to see a tank bowl last time the team took to the ice in the Windy City, as they lost in the shootout to the Chicago Blackhawks, extending the gap at the bottom of the standings. Going from one team fighting for the right to draft Macklin Celebrini to another, the Anaheim Ducks come to town, and this is a team that is considering a rebuild of their rebuild.
The Ducks recently traded away young stud defenseman Jamie Drysdale to the Philadelphia Flyers with a 2025 second-round pick in exchange for forward prospect Cutter Gauthier, this is a team trying to tear down a rebuild it seems. As a potential rival for the first overall pick, the Ducks are going to try and be a team towards the bottom of the league too. This is not going to be a game with extreme quality, and the Sharks might be able to sneak a win tonight.
San Jose is going to need its team to be at its best if they are going to get the result they desire. There are no easy games in this league anymore, but with just one win in the last 16, it would be easy for the Sharks to let their head drop and fall further behind the teams ahead of them in the standings. Winning and starting to build a winning cuture in the Bay Area is going to be important for the Sharks to get back to success.
Projected Lineups
Anaheim Ducks
Alex Killorn - Leo Carlsson - Troy Terry
Frank Vatrano - Mason McTavish - Ryan Strome
Isac Lundestrom - Adam Henrique - Brock McGinn
Ross Johnston - Sam Carrick - Jakob Silfverberg
Cam Fowler - Ilya Lybushkin
Jackson LaCombe - Radko Gudas
Urho Vaakanainen - Gustav Lindstrom
John Gibson
Lucas Dostal
San Jose Sharks
William Eklund - Tomas Hertl - Filip Zadina
Alexander Barabanov - Logan Couture - Fabian Zetterlund
Luke Kunin - Nico Sturm - Mike Hoffman
Justin Bailey - Ryan Carpenter - Anthony Duclair
Mario Ferraro - Marc-Edouard Vlasic
Henry Thrun - Jan Rutta
Nikita Okhotyuk - Kyle Burroughs
Mackenzie Blackwood
Kaapo Kahkonen
Puck Drop
This will be a 7:30 PM puck drop from the Shark tank. If you are going to the game tonight, make some noise and show your support to the team. It's going to mean a lot to a club that is knowingly going to endure some tough games to have the affection of the fans still. Against a divisional, and state opponent like the Ducks, home ice is important for not letting the birds invade.