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

Tonight is the night, folks. A core piece of the 2016 Stanley Cup Final run for the San Jose Sharks has come back to SAP Center.

That’s right, Roman Polak is back, baby!

The Stars are riding a season-high six-game winning streak coming into tonight and will be eager to keep it rolling against Polak’s former teammates. More of a stay-at-home guy himself, Polak’s partner Esa Lindell has pulled his fair share of the offensive weight, putting up eight assists over his last five games.

On the Sharks’ side of the ice, tonight is a big night for Patrick Marleau, who will be playing in his 1,700th game, making him the seventh player in league history to hit that mark, as well as becoming the youngest player in league history to do so at 40 years (and 118 days) young. So great that he gets to share this moment with his beloved former teammate, Roman Polak.

More good news for the Sharks is that noted thorn-in-their-collective-sides Corey Perry is still out, serving the fourth game of his five-game suspension. He received the suspension during the Winter Classic, where he elbowed Nashville Predators forward Ryan Ellis in the head within the first few minutes of the game. It might be a different sweater, but it’s the same old Corey Perry.

Is anyone else wearing a new sweater tonight? I think I got ‘em all.

Lines

Sharks

Joe Pavelski makes his return to the Shark Tank! No expected changes for the #SJSharks pic.twitter.com/TBI04DQ8PO

— Fear the Fin (@fearthefin) January 11, 2020

Expected Scratches: Lukas Radil, Tim Heed

Injured Reserve: Logan Couture (fractured ankle), Dalton Prout (upper body)

Stars (via NHL.com)

Jamie Benn — Tyler Seguin — Alexander Radulov
Denis Gurianov — Roope Hintz — Joe Pavelski
Andrew Cogliano — Radek Faksa — Blake Comeau
Mattias Janmark — Jason Dickinson — Joel Kiviranta

Jamie Oleksiak — Miro Heiskanen
Esa Lindell — Roman Polak
Andrej Sekera — Taylor Fedun

Anton Khudobin
Ben Bishop

Expected Scratches: Justin Dowling

Injured Reserve: Martin Hanzal (back), John Klingberg (lower body), Stephen Johns (head)

Suspended: Corey Perry

Where to Watch

Puck drop from Enterprise Center will be at 7:30 PT/10:30 ET. Tonight’s broadcast will be available on NBC Sports California in the Bay Area and on Fox Sports Southwest+ for the visitors’ market. Streaming will be available on NHLt and ESPN+. The radio call will be on 98.5 KFOX or available to stream through the Sharks + SAP Center app.