The Golden Knights take on the San Jose Sharks as they look to win their eighth straight game and extend their point streak to 11 games.
The last time these teams met, Marc-Andre Fleury recorded a 33-save shutout in a convincing 6-0 win. Tonight marks the second of four meetings between the two clubs who are not particularly fond of each other.
Vegas (27-15-4) leads San Jose (25-13-7) by one point in the standings; both teams trail only Calgary in the Pacific Division.
San Jose’s third line, featuring Evander Kane, Tomas Hertl and Joonas Donskoi, has been its best in recent games, though the Sharks are getting offense from throughout the lineup. In fact, San Jose already has seven players who have eclipsed the 30-point mark.
The Brandon Pirri drama continues as #73 was reassigned to the AHL earlier today before being recalled ahead of tonight’s contest. It’s unclear what’s going on at this point or whether this is simply a transaction mess. We’ll find out soon.
Valentin Zykov is set to make his Knights debut tonight; he and Oscar Lindberg will skate with Ryan Carpenter on the third line, while Tomas Nosek will shift down to the fourth line. Cody Eakin will not play tonight.
Here are the projected lineups for both clubs:
Golden Knights
Marchessault — Karlsson — Pacioretty
Pirri — Stasty — Tuch
Lindberg — Carpenter — Zykov
Nosek — Bellemare — Reaves
McNabb — Schmidt
Theodore — Engelland
Merrill — Holden
Fleury
Lagace
Sharks
Radil (#52) — Couture (#39) — Meier (#28)
Sorensen (#20) — Thornton (#19) — Pavelski (#8)
Kane (#9) — Hertl (#48) — Donskoi (#27)
M. Karlsson (#68) — Goodrow (#23) — Labanc (#62)
Dillon (#4) — E. Karlsson (#65)
Simek (#51) — Burns (#88)
Ryan (#47) — Heed (#72)
Jones (#31)
Dell (#30)
Let’s discuss!