NHL Gameday: Sharks Look to Keep Streak in Tampa Going

Programming note – Sharks-Lightning coverage starts today at 3:30 p.m. with Sharks Pregame Live on CSN California and streaming on the NBC Sports App.

WHERE THEY STAND

Sharks: 8-6-0, 16 points, 3rd Pacific Division
Lightning: 8-5-1, 17 points, 3rd Atlantic Division

PREGAME NEWS AND NOTES

***The Sharks will attempt to try to remain perfect on their six-game road trip after beating Washington and Florida earlier this week. They are an even 4-4 on the road, while Tampa Bay is 5-1-1 at Amalie Arena. The Sharks are 5-1-1 in their last seven visits to Tampa Bay, including three straight wins.

***The special teams battle should be a good one, particularly when the Lightning’s power play faces the Sharks’ penalty kill. Tampa Bay is second in the NHL with 15 power play scores (26.3 percent, third in the NHL), while the Sharks have killed off 28 of their last 29 opponent advantages. San Jose hasn’t surrendered a goal on the penalty kill since Oct. 20 at Pittsburgh, nine games ago.

***After sitting last in the NHL in faceoffs after the first few weeks of the season, the Sharks have drastically improved that part of their game, winning more than 50 percent in five of their last six games. Tomas Hertl has won 51 of 80 over that span (63.8 percent). Logan Couture, however, is last in the NHL among the 110 players that have taken at least 100 draws (33.5 percent).

KEEP AN EYE ON...

Sharks: Chris Tierney. The fourth line center hasn’t had a great first month with just three assists and no goals, but his line with Tommy Wingels and Melker Karlsson had an outstanding game against Florida on Thursday and generated the game-winning goal by Wingels. Tierney has two assists over his last four games.

Lightning: Nikita Kucherov. The top line forward is second in scoring on Tampa Bay with 16 points (5g, 11a), including nine points (4g, 5a) in his last six games. Kucherov had a pair of scores in a meeting with the Sharks last Dec. 5 in San Jose.

PROBABLE LINES

Sharks
Joe Pavelski – Joe Thornton – Joel Ward
Mikkel Boedker – Logan Couture – Joonas Donskoi
Patrick Marleau – Tomas Hertl – Kevin Labanc
Melker Karlsson – Chris Tierney – Tommy Wingels

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Paul Martin – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon – David Schlemko

Martin Jones (starter)
Aaron Dell

Lightning
Vlad Namestnikov – Steven Stamkos – Nikita Kucherov
Ondrej Palat – Tyler Johnson – Brayden Point
Alex Killorn – Valtteri Filppula – Ryan Callahan
Brian Boyle – Cedric Paquette – J.T. Brown

Anton Stralman – Victor Hedman
Jason Garrison – Andrej Sustr
Slater Koekkoek – Braydon Coburn

Ben Bishop (starter)
Andrei Vasilevskiy

INJURIES

Sharks: None.

Lightning: Jonathan Drouin (upper body) is day-to-day.

QUOTEABLE

“Our scoring isn’t where it can be, but as a team we talked about the most important thing is playing a good defensive game. We can win games 1-0 or 2-0. Not the start we wanted tonight, but we regrouped and found a way to win.” – Tommy Wingels, after Thursday’s win over Florida

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