The San Jose Sharks look to keep things rolling on their East Coast swing on Thursday as they visit the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
Team Teal avenged being shut out Monday by the New York Islanders 4-0 by obliterating the Philadelphia Flyers the following day 8-2. Joe Pavelski and Evander Kane registered two goals a piece as 13 different Sharks contributed to Tuesday night's win, which was highlighted by San Jose's power play getting off the schneid and depositing two of the evening's goals. Backup netminder Aaron Dell put on a stellar performance and is reported to get the back-to-back start against the Blueshirts on Thursday.
New York, on the other hand, has yet to win a game this season. The Rangers are in the midst of a rebuild with new coach David Quinn joining the organization during the off-season, and they appear to still be working out some early season kinks. One of the biggest questions surrounding New York coming into the season was whether the defense could improve on their rough 2017-18 campaign, but so far, the blueline has struggled. It was reported Thursday morning that top-billed defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk will be a healthy scratch Thursday night versus the Sharks.
This is the first of a two-game season series between New York and San Jose. The teams split their two-game series last season, with the visiting team winning each tilt. The Sharks skated to a 4-1 victory when they played at MSG last October.
Sharks projected lines and pairs:
Evander Kane – Joe Pavelski – Kevin Labanc
Tomas Hertl – Logan Couture – Timo Meier
Marcus Sorensen – Antti Suomela – Joonas Donskoi
Barclay Goodrow – Rourke Chartier – Melker Karlsson
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Erik Karlsson
Joakim Ryan – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillion – Justin Braun
Martin Jones
Aaron Dell – confirmed starter
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Rangers projected lines and pairs:
Jimmy Vesey – Kevin Hayes – Ryan Spooner
Pavel Buchnevich – Mika Zibanejad -Jesper Fast
Chris Kreider – Brett Howden – Mats Zuccarello
Vladislav Namestnikov – Filip Chytil – Vinni Lettieri
Brady Skjei -Adam McQuaid
Brendan Smith - Fredrik Claesson
Marc Staal – Anthony DeAngelo
Henrik Lundqvist – confirmed starter
Alexandar Georgiev
