The Western Conference-leading Vegas Golden Knights (11-2-1) will face off against the last-place San Jose Sharks (2-10-1) in a division clash tonight at T-Mobile Arena.
Both teams enter tonight’s game in the midst of two-game streaks.
The visiting Sharks are winners of two straight — San Jose’s first two wins of the season — after defeating the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 last night.
The Golden Knights, however, have lost consecutive games for the first time this season, including a 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks and, most recently, a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings.
They will look to put an end to both streaks in tonight’s favorable matchup on home ice.
The season started out very differently for the two teams.
While the Golden Knights began the year on an 11-0-1 tear, the Sharks came within one loss of posting the worst season-opening losing streak in NHL history.
But after recording 11 straight losses (0-10-1), the Sharks defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 on Tuesday to avoid that fate, then followed it up with a win against the reeling 2-9-1 Oilers on Thursday.
MacKenzie Blackwood willed his team to victory with 38- and 39-save performances in the two wins, respectively. Since the Sharks are in the second half of a back-to-back tonight, Kaapo Kahkonen likely will get the nod in Sin City.
The Sharks acquired defenseman Calen Addison from the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday to fill the hole on the top power play following the offseason departure of Erik Karlsson. Addison played 2:34 on the power play last night, and he recorded two shots and a minus-one rating in 19:47 in his Sharks debut.
The power play went 0-for-2, but the Sharks’ man-advantage has been decent considering the team’s overall record. The power play is clicking at 17.5 percent (down from 18.4 percent prior to last night’s game), which is good for 21st overall. The penalty kill, meanwhile, is operating at 72.6 percent, good for 26th overall.
By contrast, Vegas’ power play is ranked 11th (22.5 percent), while the Golden Knights’ penalty kill is tenth at 83.7 percent.
Tomas Hertl leads the Sharks in scoring with nine points, while Fabian Zetterlund has a team-high four goals after finding twine last night.
The Sharks are still without captain Logan Couture, who is on injured reserve along with Alexander Barabanov and Matt Benning.
The team is in a full rebuild, and the bare roster has felt the effects in the standings. Vegas will look to exploit that as it seeks to right the ship following two straight regulation losses.
The Golden Knights are 21-2-5 against San Jose all-time, though Vegas went 2-1-1 in last year’s season series.
These teams squared off earlier this year in Vegas’ second game of the season. It was one of three straight 4-1 victories for the Golden Knights to kick off Year 7.
Goalie matchup
Logan Thompson is coming off his first loss of the year after giving up three goals in the third period against Anaheim; he finished the contest with 19 saves on 22 shots for an .864 save percentage, by far his lowest of the year. However, he remains 5-1-0 with a 2.31 goals-against average and .923 save percentage. He turned aside 22 of 23 for a .957 save percentage against San Jose on Oct. 12.
Bruce Cassidy could elect to go back to former Sharks netminder Adin Hill, who will be seeking his seventh win of the year. Hill is currently riding a 6-1-1 record with a 1.97 goals-against average, a .934 save percentage and one shutout in eight starts.
Kaapo Kahkonen is 0-4-0 with a 4.30 goals-against average and .876 save percentage in four starts. Blackwood has gotten the majority of the workload, but he is coming off a busy night against the Oilers and likely will serve as Kahkonen’s backup.
Keys to the game
Shut it down: The Sharks have scored just 17 goals and have been held to one or zero goals in nine games this season. San Jose is averaging just 1.31 goals per game while surrendering an average of 4.38. Vegas doesn’t need to be perfect, but the Golden Knights need to simplify their game and outwork their opponent, especially since the Sharks played last night.
Capitalize: The Golden Knights failed to take advantage of their scoring chances Wednesday against the Kings, and it cost them in the end. They didn’t strike when they had opportunities on the power play (including at the start of the third period), and they couldn’t come up with kills, leading to two power-play goals against (even if one came off a fortunate bounce). But in general, the Golden Knights need to bury their chances instead of taking themselves out of the game. This is a very different opponent, but there’s no love lost between these franchises, and San Jose has some momentum with back-to-back wins.
Projected lineups
Golden Knights
Ivan Barbashev — Jack Eichel — Jonathan Marchessault
William Carrier — Michael Amadio — Mark Stone
Paul Cotter — William Karlsson — Pavel Dorofeyev
Jonas Rondbjerg — Brett Howden — Keegan Kolesar
Alec Martinez — Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb — Shea Theodore
Ben Hutton — Zach Whitecloud
Adin Hill
Logan Thompson
Sharks
William Eklund — Tomas Hertl — Fabian Zetterlund
Kevin Labanc — Mikael Granlund — Anthony Duclair
Mike Hoffman — Nico Sturm — Filip Zadina
Givani Smith — Ryan Carpenter — Luke Kunin
Mario Ferraro — Calen Addison
Marc-Edouard Vlasic — Kyle Burroughs
Nikita Okhotiuk — Jan Rutta
Kaapo Kahkonen
MacKenzie Blackwood
How to watch
Game 15: Golden Knights vs. Sharks
When: 7 p.m. PT
Where: T-Mobile Arena — Las Vegas, NV
TV: Scripps
Radio: Fox Sports 98.9 FM