After besting the red-hot Red Wings in Hockeytown, the Sharks move on to Ohio and the Columbus Blue Jackets, who might be hotter than the Red Wings the Sharks just bested. 8-2 in their last 10 with a 5-game winning streak, the Sharks are fighting uphill for the two points tonight, but that's the task in front of Ryan Warsofsky's men. They'll push to build momentum ahead of the Four Nations faceoff in February, creating a break in the schedule.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic is set to play in his 1300th career NHL game. The Sharks great has spent his entire career in Teal, and despite his play deteriorating in the final few years of his contract, he's been a fantastic member of Team Teal for as long as the Sharks were competitive. They needed the Quebecois defenseman to be unique to enjoy the success they did with the old core, and he'll get a small reward tonight.
Alexandar Georgiev will get the start as he progresses in his rehabilitation and becomes a valuable netminder. San Jose is trying to do what it did with Mackenzie Blackwood and turn Georgiev into a netminder capable of playing for teams better than the Sharks are at this moment. They'll ride him more now to see if that can happen before the start of next season, and they have to turn to Yaroslav Askarov and the future of the San Jose Sharks.
Projected Lineups
San Jose Sharks
Collin Graf - Mikael Granlund - Fabian Zetterlund
William Eklund - Macklin Celebrini - Tyler Toffoli
Luke Kunin - Alex Wennberg - Will Smith
Barclay Goodrow - Nico Sturm - Ty Dellandrea
Jake Walman - Cody Ceci
Mario Ferraro - Timothy Liljegren
Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Jan Rutta
Alexandar Georgiev
Yaroslav Askarov
Columbus Blue Jackets
Dmitri Voronko - Adam Fantilli - Kirill Marchenko
James van Riemsdyk - Cole Sillinger - Kent Johnson
Zach Aston-Reese - Luca Del Bel Belluz - Mathieu Olivier
Mikael Pyyhtia - Sean Kuraly - Kevin Labanc
Zach Werenski - Dante Fabbro
Denton Mateychuk - Ivan Provorov
Jake Christiansen - Damon Severson
Elvis Merzlikins
Daniil Tarasov
Puck Drop
It'll be a 4 p.m. puck drop from Columbus as the Sharks look to build on their win over the Red Wings ahead of their long east coast road trip. San Jose has been good in the recent weeks of staying competitive, and when they can play with the lead, they have shown that they can cause trouble for the opponents. It'll be fun to see if they can cause trouble for the hot Blue Jackets.