The Sharks are back in action tonight as they take on the New Jersey Devils for their 2nd and final matchup this season. They lost 3-1 less than a week ago. The Devils have been red hot, but their 8-game win streak was recently snapped by the Avalanche in their last outing.
As for the Sharks, they have been playing better hockey; they had their best game of the season against the Kings on Tuesday, outshooting them 41-14 and dominating play for nearly 60 minutes. Unfortunately, their goaltending was less than stellar, contributing to the 4-3 defeat. Despite the result, however, a young Sharks team will look to build on the performance. Their lineup is as follows.
Toffoli - Celebrini - Smith
Eklund - Wennberg - Kurashev
Graf - Dellandrea - Skinner
Goodrow - Giles - Reaves
Orlov - Liljegren
Ferraro - Klingberg
Dickinson - Mukhamadullin
Nedelkjovic
Giles draws in for his first game of the season after being called up in favor of Michael Misa. Giles was acquired from Florida at last year's deadline and is strong in the faceoff dot and on the penalty kill. Both areas the Sharks have struggled in this season.
On defense, Mukhamadullin is back in the lineup after missing the last nine games due to injury. He will be on a pair with youngster Sam Dickinson, who is suiting up for his 9th game. The Sharks will have to make a decision on him after tonight, whether or not to burn the first year of his ELC and keep him with the Sharks.
Nedeljkovic is making his first start in 3 games after Askarov pulled away in net. After a rocky start from Askarov, Nedeljkovic has a chance to regain some footing in the crease with a strong performance.
Overall, the lineup is relatively the same as their last couple of times out, the offense is starting to find consistency, and while the defense is still a work in progress, the Sharks are vastly improved from where they were a few weeks ago. It will be interesting to see if they can continue to put together strong efforts and grow as a team, and hopefully, better results will start showing in the win column.