The San Jose Sharks have just two regular season games left to get their game in shape for the playoffs. They'll play one of those on Thursday as they take on Connor McDavid and the Oilers in Edmonton.
Team Teal is coming off a very disappointing 4-2 loss to the non-playoff bound Vancouver Canucks. San Jose had a 2-1 lead going into the third frame of Tuesday's contest but let the Canucks stick around, which resulted in three unanswered goals. "We had chances to break it open 3-1 and we didn't do that," Joe Pavelski told the media afterward, saying the team was on the "wrong end, again."
The captain scored a power-play goal in Tuesday's game, which was his first contest after missing seven due to a lower-body injury. Melker Karlsson, who missed the last two games with a lower-body injury, will pencil back into the lineup on Thursday. Erik Karlsson, who has started practicing with the team again after being sidelined on February 26.
This is the final time the Sharks and Oilers will play each other this season. In 125 total matchups between the franchises, San Jose holds a 61-49-9-6 record against Edmonton.
Sharks projected lines and starters:
Timo Meier – Logan Couture – Joe Pavelski
Evander Kane – Tomas Hertl – Gustav Nyquist
Marcus Sorensen – Joe Thornton – Kevin Labanc
Micheal Haley – Barclay Goodrow – Melker Karlsson
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Tim Heed
Jacob Middleton – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon – Justin Braun
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Aaron Dell – projected starter
Martin Jones
Oilers projected lines and pairs:
Leon Draisaitl – Connor McDavid – Zack Kassian
Milan Lucic – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Ty Rattie
Tobias Rieder – Colby Cave – Alex Chiasson
Joseph Gambardella – Sam Gagner – Josh Currie
Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson
Darnell Nurse – Kris Russell
Andrej Sekera – Matt Benning
Anthony Stolarz – projected starter
Mikko Koskinen
