Following... whatever that was in Tampa Bay, the San Jose Sharks return to action tonight against the Florida Panthers in a matinee trying to get the Sharks back into the win column. That decimation of Team Teal in Tampa needs to be a one-off game, and the Sharks need a better effort after leaving Vitek Vanecek out to dry. We'll see if the Sharks can respond, but they must improve their effort from the Tampa game.
It'll be Mackenzie Blackwood starting tonight as the Sharks look to respond. Vitek Vanecek was left out to dry against the Lightning, so the Sharks will owe him an improved effort next time. As for tonight, Blackwood came in for Vitek in relief, and the Sharks will need him to be good tonight. Especially if they come out of the block sluggishly again against the reigning Stanley Cup Champions, this could be a long night for Blackwood.
Other changes to this group include Will Smith leaving the lineup with an upper-body injury; he'll make way for Ethan Cardwell. Jack Thompson will sit on the blue line to allow the Sharks to play Henry Thrun on the backend. They will be looking for a win tonight from their young roster to rebound for the poor performance in Tampa Bay. It'll be a long night if the Sharks do not improve from that awful game.
Projected Lineups
San Jose Sharks
William Eklund - Macklin Celebrini -Fabian Zetterlund
Luke Kunin - Alex Wennberg - Tyler Toffoli
Klim Kostin -Mikael Granlund - Ethan Cardwell
Carl Grundstrom -Nico Sturm - Ty Dellandrea
Jake Walman -Cody Ceci
Mario Ferraro - Timothy Liljegren
Henry Thrun - Jan Rutta
Mackenzie Blackwood
Vitek Vanecek
Florida Panthers
Carter Verhaeghe - Alexander Barkov - Sam Reinhart
Jesper Boqvist - Sam Bennett - Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen - Anton Lundell - Evan Rodrigues
A.J. Greer - Tomas Nosek - Mackie Samosekvich
Gustav Forsling - Aaron Ekblad
Nikko Mikkola - Nate Schmidt
Dmitry Kulikov - Uvis Balinskis
Sergei Bobrovsky
Spencer Knight