Pride Night in the Shark Tank will see Team Teal return from their trip to Utah to face the high-flying Minnesota Wild. Injuries are destroying Team Teal, and the Sharks are looking to stay afloat this season. They sit just two points off the bottom of the standings, having played two games more than the Chicago Blackhawks. It's been a tough stretch recently, but the Sharks can start to turn it around with a win tonight to get the momentum building.
Injuries have significantly depleted the Sharks. Klim Kostin left last night's defeat with a lower-body injury before the end of the game. Fabian Zetterlund was not made available to the media, indicating something is plaguing him, and Alex Wennberg will not play tonight due to an illness. It's getting extreme for the Sharks, and Team Teal has to find a way to cope with all the absentees. It will not be easy, but it's the task at hand.
Alexandar Georgiev gave the Sharks a chance to win last night, but the Sharks were unable to do so. With the Bulgarian-born Russian's efforts in vain, the Sharks will turn to a Russian-born Russian tonight. Yaroslav Askarov will take the crease and try to backstop the Sharks to a win. As the Sharks continue to rely on their future starter, the hope is they can get more experience for him before the pressure starts to build on this young team.
Projected Lineups
Minnesota Wild
Matt Boldy - Marco Rossi - Mats Zucarello
Marcus Johanson - Joel Eriksson Ek - Ryan Hartman
Marcus Foligno - Frederick Gaudreau - Yakov Trenin
Devin Shore - Marat Kushnutdinov - Ben Jones
Jacob Middleton - Zach Bogosian
Declan Chisholm - Travis Dermott
Jon Merrill - David Jiricek
Marc-Andre Fleury
Filip Gustafsson
San Jose Sharks
William Eklund - Mikael Granlund - Fabiam Zetterlund
Collin Graf - Macklin Celebrini - Tyler Toffoli
Luke Kunin - Nico Sturm - Will Smith
Barclay Goodrow - Ty Dellandrea
Henry Thrun - Cody Ceci
Mario Ferraro - Timothy Liljegren
Shakir Mukhamadullin - Jan Rutta
Marc-Edouard Vlasic
Yaroslav Askarov
Alexandar Georgiev
Puck Drop
It's a 7 p.m. puck drop from the Shark Tank tonight as Team Teal looks to get anything to build on. Already in danger of falling to the bottom of the standings, the Sharks need to start getting points if they want to get away from the foot of the standings for a second consecutive year. It's always much easier said than done when it comes to this, but it's got to be done to restore some faith in the dressing room and this team.