The Sharks‘ first trip to the east coast will come to an end after tonight’s game against the New York Rangers.

It has been a rough trip for the Sharks, despite their 2-1 record. Logan Couture, Paul Martin, Ben Smith, and Joonas Donskoi have all been injured, leading to debuts from Dylan DeMelo, Nikolay Goldobin (who scored his first NHL goal on Saturday night), and tonight, Brian Lerg. Couture was placed on long-term injured reserve, which is why Lerg has been called up. No signs of Martin, Donskoi, or Smith were seen at this morning’s practice, so we can probably assume they won’t be in the lineup tonight either.

Tale Of The Tape

	@
4-1-0	Record	3-2-1
1st in Pacific	Rank	2nd in Metropolitan
56.0	Score-Adj. Fenwick	47.6
103.8	PDO	104.1
17.6	PP%	6.3
90	PK%	83.3

4 PM PDT – Madison Square Garden- New York, New York
TV: CSN-CA, NHLN-US, TVAS, SN1 Radio: sjsharks.com, KFOX 98.5
Know Your Enemy: Blueshirt Banter

Projected Sharks Lineup

Nikolay Goldobin – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Patrick Marleau – Tomas Hertl – Joel Ward
Matt Nieto – Chris Tierney – Tommy Wingels
Barclay Goodrow – Brian Lerg – Mike Brown
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon – Brent Burns
Dylan DeMelo – Matt Tennyson
Martin Jones
Alex Stalock

Projected Rangers Lineup

Rick Nash – Derek Stepan – Mats Zuccarello
Chris Kreider – Derek Brassard – Jesper Fast
Oscar Lindberg – Kevin Hayes – JT Miller
Viktor Stalberg – Dominic Moore – Jarret Stoll
Ryan McDonagh – Kevin Klein
Keith Yandle – Dan Girardi
Marc Staal – Dan Boyle
Antti Raanta
Henrik Lundqvist

Last Meeting

The Rangers won the last meeting between the two teams, beating the Sharks by a score of 3-1. This win completed a sweep of the California teams for New York.

Storylines

• The Rangers are on the second half of a back to back tonight (they lost in OT to the Devils), so the Sharks are not going to have to face Henrik Lundqvist. Starter Antti Raanta has not played an NHL game since February of last year, so this should at least be interesting.
• San Jose Barracuda captain Brian Lerg will be playing on the fourth line in place of Ben Smith tonight. He’ll be wearing number 11.
• Martin Jones should get the start for the Sharks tonight – he’s currently leading the NHL in goals against average, save percentage, and shutouts. #vezina