After sweeping a four-game homestand, the Sharks look to extend their winning streak to five games as they travel to the State of Hockey to face off with a potential playoff opponent, the Minnesota Wild.
San Jose is coming off a gutsy overtime win over the St. Louis Blues over the weekend. The victory boosted San Jose into first place in both the Pacific Division and Western Conference for a day, before the Calgary Flames beat the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday to retain a one-point advantage in the standings.
The Wild currently occupy the second wild card spot in the conference standings with 74 points, sitting just one point behind the Dallas Stars for the first wild card spot and five points behind the St. Louis Blues in the Central Division. Minnesota has gone 6-2-2 in their last 10 contests.
San Jose will be without Erik Karlsson (lower-body injury) and Evander Kane (personal matter) on Monday. The Wild continue to play without captain Mikko Koivu, who is out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL and meniscus.
This is the third time the Sharks and Wild have played each other this season, and San Jose has won each of the previous meetings. In 64 total games between the franchises, San Jose holds a 34-20-2-8 record.
Sharks projected lines and pairs:
Timo Meier – Logan Couture – Joe Pavelski
Joonas Donskoi – Tomas Hertl – Gustav Nyquist
Marcus Sorensen – Joe Thornton – Kevin Labanc
Micheal Haley – Barclay Goodrow – Melker Karlsson
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Radim Simek – Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Tim Heed
Brenden Dillon – Justin Braun
Martin Jones – confirmed starter
Aaron Dell
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Wild projected lines and pairs:
Jordan Greenway – Eric Staal – Jason Zucker
Zach Parise – Victor Rask – Kevin Fiala
Ryan Donato – Joel Eriksson Ek – Pontus Aberg
Marcus Foligno – Eric Fehr – J.T. Brown
Ryan Suter – Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin – Brad Hunt
Greg Pateryn – Anthony Bitetto
Devan Dubnyk – projected starter
Alex Stalock
