San Jose Sharks Travel to the Steel City to Take On the Pittsburgh Penguins

Your San Jose Sharks will continue their Eastern road trip tonight with a visit to PPG Paints Arena in Pennsylvania as the Sharks take on the Pittsburgh Penguins. This Penguins team isn't what it used to be. While it still has a lot of the old guard like Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Sidney Crosby, they've sputtered and stalled in recent years and are starting to fall into limbo. It's not good enough for the playoffs but too good to tank.

San Jose will be looking to take advantage of this tonight by exploiting Pittsburgh's defensive struggles. They're in the second half of a back-to-back and have shipped six goals in each of their last two games. San Jose can do the same by following the blueprints other teams have left for them: traffic in front and shots on the net. Get deflections, rebounds, and screens to make it as difficult for the Penguins' netminders as anything.

Will we finally see Jake Walman slide back into the lineup? He's been missing with an injury since the Vancouver game and has been listed as day-to-day for a while. While it is excellent news that his injury isn't long-term, the Sharks are undeniably better with the former Detroit Red Wing in the lineup. He's had a great start to the season and the Sharks will be looking to get him reinstated.

Projected Lineups

San Jose Sharks

Barclay Goodrow - Macklin Celebrini - Tyler Toffoli
William Eklund - Mikael Granlund - Fabian Zetterlund
Ty Dellandrea - Alex Wennberg - Will Smith
Carl Grundstrom - Nico Sturm - Luke Kunin
Jake Walman - Cody Ceci
Mario Ferraro - Timothy Liljegren
Henry Thrun - Jan Rutta
Vitek Vanecek
Mackenzie Blackwood

Pittsburgh Penguins

Anthony Beauvillier - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust
Jesse Puljujarvi - Drew O'Connor - Samuel Poulin
Matthew Nieto - Noel Acciari - Valtteri Puustinen
Marcus Pettersson - Erik Karlsson
Matt Grzelcyk - Jack St Ivany
Ryan Graves - Ryan Shea
Tristan Jarry
Alex Nedeljkovic

Puck Drop

The Sharks will face the Penguins in a rematch of the 2016 Stanley Cup Final, starting at 4 p.m. in the Steel City. With the Sharks looking to come out on the victorious side this time, they'll grab two more points on this road trip. It'll be a challenging game, but it will be won if the Sharks play up to their potential.