Tampa Bay @ San Jose preview
SAP Center at San Jose
Last Meeting ( Dec 7, 2019 ) San Jose 1, Tampa Bay 7
The red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning try to complete their tour of California with three wins and improve to 8-0-0 against the Pacific Division this season when they visit the injury-hampered San Jose Sharks on Saturday night. Reigning Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov scored his sixth goal in six games Friday for a 4-3 victory at Anaheim as the Lightning improved to 14-2-1 over the past 17 contests.
“I don’t think we’re quite where we were in some of the stretch before the break (10 straight wins), but you’re seeing signs as we progress,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper told reporters. “That’s a good thing, especially (because) we’re munching some points along the way.” The Lightning have scored 25 times while winning four of the last five meetings, including a 7-1 rout in Tampa Bay on Dec. 7 with four points from left wing Alex Killorn, and hope to take advantage of a San Jose team fading out of the Western Conference postseason race. The Sharks have dropped four of their last five games overall to sit closer to the bottom of the conference than a playoff position and lost another key player in Wednesday’s 5-2 loss to Vancouver as All-Star forward Tomas Hertl suffered a torn ACL and is lost for the season. “Obviously (Hertl) is a big part of this team, but we’ve dealt with that all year,” San Jose forward Barclay Goodrow told reporters. “One guy goes down, the next guy has to step up.”
TIME: 10:30 p.m. ET. TV: FS Sun, NBCS California
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (31-15-5): Kucherov is riding a six-game point streak and leads the team with 60 points while captain Steven Stamkos (54) had an assist Friday to extend his run to six contests on the scoresheet. Selke Trophy candidate Anthony Cirelli scored once and set up another in the win at Anaheim and the 22-year-old center boasts four goals and five assists in the last six games to push his point total to 36 - three shy of his career best set in 2018-19. Andrei Vasilevskiy recorded his league-leading 26th victory Friday and the 150th of his career, but backup Curtis McElhinney (5-6-2, .902 save percentage) is expected to get the start against the Sharks.
ABOUT THE SHARKS (22-26-4): Hertl joins captain Logan Couture (ankle, out a few more weeks) on the shelf and the duo is tied for second on the team with 36 points - one behind defenseman Erik Karlsson (32 assists). Left wing Evander Kane tops San Jose with 19 goals and needs one to reach 20 for the fifth straight season while former Norris Trophy defenseman Brent Burns (33 points) had four goals and three assists in 11 January games. The Sharks entered Friday fourth from the bottom in goals against (3.33) as goalies Aaron Dell (9-9-2, .909 SP) and Martin Jones (13-17-2, .889) have struggled much of the season.
OVERTIME
1. San Jose F Joe Thornton needs two points to become the 14th player in NHL history to reach 1,500.
2. Tampa Bay LW Ondrej Palat scored his 13th goal Friday and has six points in the past five contests.
3. Sharks F Patrick Marleau needs one goal to break the tie with Mike Modano (561) for 25th in league history.
PREDICTION: Lightning 5, Sharks 2