Coyotes at Sharks: Lines, gamethread, and where to watch

The Sharks (30-18-8, 2nd Pacific) return home for the first of a three game home stand, into the welcoming paws (no? too much?) of the Arizona Coyotes (14-32-10, 8th Pacific). It's easy to forget the Coyotes exist sometimes, ensconced as they seem to constantly be in the NHL's basement, but that attitude can get some teams into trouble; enter the Chicago Blackhawks.

In a brief moment of joy and hope for fans in Glendale, the Coyotes demolished the not-quite-dynasty last night to the tune of 6-1. It was the Yotes' 14th win of the season, five of which have come in the past few months, but they seem almost respectable of late. They've batted a perfect nouveau-NHL-loser-point .500, 5-5-5 in their last 15, and, while their season has been over since halfway through November, they seem to be playing fast and loose, which makes them dangerous.

The Sharks held on to their second place position over the weekend with a convincing win over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, followed up with a less convincing, but still valuable, 3-2 shoot out win over the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday. Martin Jones has been a large part of the Sharks' recent success: despite his seeming penchant for allowing early goals, he's 2-2-1 in his last five starts, with a .934 save percentage and a 1.96 goals against average to go along with it.

There's ample reason for optimism tonight beyond the teams' comparative records. Arizona looks set to start back up goaltender Scott Wedgewood in net, his first start since a 6-0 shellacking at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings back on 3 February, and the Sharks have won all three contests against the Yotes so far this season.

The boys should be able to keep this ball rolling this week at home against two divisional opponents who are all but eliminated from contention. And the Stars. We'll worry about that one later.

Sharks Lines

Timo Meier -- Joe Pavelski -- Joonas Donskoi

Tomas Hertl -- Logan Couture -- Kevin Labanc

Mikkel Boedker -- Chris Tierney -- Jannik Hansen

Barclay Goodrow -- Daniel O'Regan -- Melker Karlsson

Joakim Ryan -- Brent Burns

Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Justin Braun

Brenden Dillon -- Dylan DeMelo

Martin Jones

Aaron Dell

Scratched: Tim Heed, Brandon Mashinter

Injured: Joe Thornton (knee), Joel Ward (shoulder)

The coaching staff seems happy to let this weekend's successful line up ride, with only minor changes to the lineup from Sunday afternoon. Hansen will likely move up one line, and correspondingly, Karlsson will likely move down. Thornton is missing his tenth straight contest with an increasingly worrying silence, and Ward is missing his third.

Coyotes Lines

Brendan Perlini -- Derek Stepan -- Clayton Keller

Richard Panik -- Christian Dvorak -- Christian Fischer

Zac Rinaldo -- Max Domi -- Tobias Rieder

Jordan Martinook -- Brad Richardson -- Nick Cousins

Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Jason Demers

Jakob Chychrun -- Niklas Hjalmarsson

Kevin Connauton -- Alex Goligoski

Scott Wedgewood

Antti Raanta

Scratched: Freddie Hamilton, Luke Schenn, Josh Archibald

Where to watch

Broadcast: NBCSCA, FS-A

Stream: NHL.tv / NHL App

Radio: 98.5 KFOX / NHL App / Sharks App