The season has arrived! That’s right, San Jose Sharks fans. After a shortened preseason, what felt like a long, long summer of waiting to see how the prospects had progressed and so much anticipation, we now finally get to see the Sharks in games that count. But, of course, the Sharks have to start things out against one of the toughest, meanest teams in the NHL.
The Florida Panthers appear to be firing on all cylinders. On Tuesday, the team played a stifling game against the Stanley Cup defending champions, the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes were held to just 15 shots all night and lost 1-0 in overtime. The game was rough and tumble, with 43 hits for the Panthers and 41 for the Hurricanes. What’s more, the Panthers had 17 minutes of penalties to the Hurricanes’ 19. This is not the kind of game the Sharks are built for, and we hope it does not develop tonight.
San Jose does have some players who can get involved in that kind of stuff. Barclay Goodrow, Nolan Allan, Zack Ostapchuk, Jacob Trouba, Mason Marchment, Kiefer Sherwood and Darnell Nurse are all known to drop the gloves, so the Sharks have more grit. But there’s the ability to fight, and then there’s the nastiness that the Panthers bring with both Tkachuk brothers and Sam Bennett. Those are two different things. It would be better if the Sharks let the Panthers get themselves into penalty trouble and take advantage on the power play. But we’ll see.
One interesting item for the Sharks is the fact that Allan appears slotted to play tonight instead of second-year defenseman Sam Dickinson. It might have to do with the heaviness of Florida’s lineup. Allan brings a much heavier game than Dickinson, something that helps against Florida.
San Jose Sharks lines tonight
Here’s what we expect the Sharks’ lines to look like tonight, courtesy of the Bay Area News Group’s Curtis Pashelka. It looks like Yaroslav Askarov will start in the net with Alex Nedeljkovic backing up.
#SJSharks didn’t run lines this AM but based on jersey color, I don’t anticipate any changes from this
Marchment-Celebrini-Smith
Stenberg-Wennberg-Graf
Chernyshov-Misa-Toffoli
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Sherwood— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) October 1, 2026
#SJSharks d-pairs in AM skate (no changes, Nedeljkovic is on the ice again)
Nurse-Kesselring
Allan-Trouba
Orlov-Cagnoni— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) October 1, 2026
Forwards
Mason Marchment – Macklin Celebrini – Will Smith
Ivar Stenberg – Alex Wennberg – Collin Graf
Igor Chernyshov – Michael Misa – Tyler Toffoli
Barclay Goodrow – Zack Ostapchuk – Kiefer Sherwood
Defense
Darnell Nurse – Michael Kesselring
Nolan Allan – Jacob Trouba
Dmitry Orlov – Luca Cagnoni
Goaltenders
Yaroslav Askarov
Alex Nedeljkovic
Florida Panthers lines vs. San Jose Sharks
As for the Panthers, Akira Schmid will start in the net. Jameson Olive reports that it was the plan all along. Jacob Markstrom was the one who got the win against the Hurricanes.
Schmid in net, per Maurice.
“We want to get him in. [It’s] 84 games. We don’t want to have a goaltender play a game and then sit two weeks before he gets in the next one. That was the plan from the start, get Akira in one as quick as we could.”— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) October 1, 2026As for the lines, here’s who we suspect the Panthers will play.
Forwards
Brady Tkachuk – Aleksander Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sandis Vilmanis
Bokondji Imama – Lars Eller – Garnet Hathaway
Defense
Gustav Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones
Dmitry Kulikov – Radko Gudas
Goaltenders
Akira Schmid
Jacob Markstrom
How to watch Florida Panthers at San Jose Sharks Oct. 1, 2026
The puck drops at 7 p.m. at SAP Center in San Jose.
Sharks fans can watch the game on NBC Sports California or listen on the Sharks + SAP Center app.
Panthers fans can watch the game on Scripps Sports or listen on WQAM, WBZT 1230-AM or WCTH 100.3-FM.
Be sure to come back here at game time to talk to other Sharks fans about what’s happening on the ice and how much you hate the Tkachuk brothers, or maybe I’m just projecting…
