The San Jose Sharks are kicking off a quick two-game road trip through the Central Division, starting with a Thursday evening game against the Dallas Stars.
The Sharks are coming off a fierce 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday evening. Minnesota roared back out of a 3-1 hole to tie the game up in the third frame, but the Joe Thornton-centered line consisting of Marcus Sorensen and Barclay Goodrow led the charge and gave San Jose a nice win to close out their four-game homestand.
The Stars are kicking off their own homestand after ending a six-game roadie on Tuesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Dallas has dropped its last two decisions against CBJ and the Boston Bruins respectively, scoring just one goal in each of those games.
Thursday's game is the first of a three-game season series between the Sharks and the Stars. San Jose went 1-2-0 in last season's series, which concluded with being shut out by Dallas netminder Ben Bishop 6-0 on New Year's Eve.
Another point of interest Thursday night will be Joe Thornton's 1,500 career game. In 967 games with the Sharks, No.19 has registered 976 points (230 goals, 746 assists). He is currently sitting at 16th on the NHL all-time points leaders list with 1,430, just 27 points shy of tying Teemu Selanne.
Sharks projected lines and pairs
Evander Kane – Joe Pavelski – Joonas Donskoi
Timo Meier – Logan Couture – Kevin Labanc
Barclay Goodrow – Joe Thornton – Marcus Sorensen
Rourke Chartier – Antti Suomela – Melker Karlsson
Joakim Ryan – Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon – Erik Karlsson
Martin Jones – projected starter
Aaron Dell
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Stars projected lines and pairs
Devin Shore - Tyler Seguin - Valeri Nichushkin
Jamie Benn - Jason Spezza – Denis Gurianov
Blake Comeau – Radek Faksa – Tyler Pitlick
Mattias Janmark – Jason Dickinson – Gemel Smith
Esa Lindell – John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen – Roman Polak
Dillon Heatherington – Julius Honka
Anton Khudobin – projected starter
Ben Bishop
