It's the first game day of 2025 for the San Jose Sharks. Ready for the mayhem and chaos of the 2025 calendar year, Team Teal will be looking to build off of a successful year where they landed several pieces that changed the franchise's fate. Now, the Sharks look to start turning the tide on their issues, and it starts tonight as the Tampa Bay Lightning visit the Shark Tank from their home in the Sunshine State.
The Sharks are approaching something close to healthy as Marc-Edouard Vlasic looks set to make his season debut tonight. San Jose hasn't had much veteran leadership, so the elder statesman of the defense coming back, even with his declining play as his age increases, will be a welcome sight to help the ship bail out water. It's no secret that the Sharks have defensive frailties, and we will see if Vlasic can help stem the tide.
We'll get to look at the Sharks' forward core closer to the time, as the scoring needs to start again. The shutout by Philadelphia at home before the turn of the calendar has set the Sharks back. They need to get the goals flowing again, and the offense needs to start finding the back of the net. If they lose a score fest, that's fine, but the Sharks need to find the scoring that makes them fun to watch.
Projected Lineups
Tampa Bay Lightning
Jake Guentzel - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel - Anthony Cirelli - Conor Geekie
Gage Goncalves - Nick Paul - Mitchell Chaffee
Zemgus Girgensons - Luke Glendening - Michael Eyssimont
Victor Hedman - Darren Raddysh
Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg - Nick Perbix
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson
San Jose Sharks
Klim Kostin - Mikael Granlund - Fabian Zetterlund
Collin Graf - Macklin Celebrini - Will Smith
Nikolai Kovalenko - Alex Wennberg - Tyler Toffoli
Barclay Goodrow - Nico Sturm - Luke Kunin
Henry Thrun - Cody Ceci
Mario Ferraro - Timothy Liljegren
Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Jan Rutta
Alexandar Georgiev
Yaroslav Askarov
Puck Drop
It's a traditional 7:30 puck drop from the tank as San Jose looks to stop the bleeding after going winless in the last eight. The bleeding has to stop. There are no expectations of success, but this is pushing the type of issue the Sharks had at the beginning of the year when they lost 10 straight to begin the season.