It's game day for the San Jose Sharks. Team Teal beat the New Jersey Devils with a last-gasp winner from Cody Ceci in their second game of the new calendar year, but tonight's opponent is much stronger and an old enemy of the Sharks. The Vegas Golden Knights will come into the SAP Center tonight looking to complete the season series sweep against the San Jose Sharks. San Jose will be looking to avoid that with a win tonight.
After Yaroslav Askarov shut down the Tampa Bay Lightning and the New Jersey Devils, Alexandar Georgiev is expected to continue his value rehabilitation as the Sharks try to turn him into an asset they can trade at the deadline for a good return. Since coming to California, Georgiev has recorded a 1-4 record with a .869 save percentage and a 4.08 goals-against average. It's not been great, but the Sharks can turn that around with better defensive play in front of him.
Elsewhere, the Sharks will be without Nico Sturm due to a lower-body injury. Jake Walman is improving, but he's still out with his injury. He could be an option when the team heads to Utah later in the week, but he's not an option tonight. This means we're looking at the Sharks using a similar lineup to the one they put out in the victory against the Devils, hoping for a similar result.
Projected Lineups
Vegas Golden Knights
Tanner Pearson - Jack Eichel - Mark Stone
Tomas Hertl - William Karlsson - Pavel Dorofeyev
Victor Olofsson - Brett Howden - Keegan Kolesar
Jonas Rondbjeg - Cole Schwindt - Alexander Holtz
Noah Hanifin - Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb - Shea Theodore
Nicolas Hague - Zach Whitecloud
Adin Hill
Ilya Samsonov
San Jose Sharks
William Eklund - Mikael Granlund - Fabian Zetterlund
Collin Graf - Macklin Celebrini - Will Smith
Klim Kostin - Alex Wennberg - Tyler Toffoli
Barclay Goodrow - Luke Kunin - Nikolai Kovalenko
Henry Thrun - Cody Ceci
Mario Ferraro - Timothy Liljegren
Shakir Mukhamadullin - Jan Rutta
Alexandar Georgiev
Yaroslav Askarov
Puck Drop
It's a 7:30 p.m. puck drop from the Shark Tank. San Jose must be better to cope with the growing injury list. Carl Grundstrom, Vitek Vanecek, Jake Walman, and now Nico Sturm join Logan Couture as the unavailable group for this one. The Sharks need the win to continue building momentum and heading in the right direction with their young core.