Canucks at Sharks: Lines, gamethread and where to watch

It’s Star Wars Night at the SAP Center as the San Jose Sharks get ready to take on the Vancouver Canucks in the second of a four-game season series. Their most recent meeting on November 2 saw the Canucks dismantle the Sharks at the Tank, with the reigning Calder Trophy winner Elias Pettersson scoring twice en route to the 5-2 victory.

Though Aaron Dell was in goal for that loss, he will once again get the call in net for the Sharks to face this Canucks squad. It’s not really hard to understand why: he’s won five of his six career starts against the Canucks, posting a save percentage of .927 and a 2.16 goals against average.

The Canucks have recently been hit with the injury bug. Backup goaltender Thatcher Demko was placed on injured reserve after he suffered a concussion during the Canucks’ morning skate on Thursday. He joins names such as Alexander Edler, Micheal Ferland and Tyler Motte on the Canucks’ injury list. Brandon Sutter is a game-time decision tonight for Vancouver after missing 13 games with a groin injury.

Lines

Sharks

Gregor draws in for Gambrell tonight and Vlasic plays his 1,000th game for the #SJSharks! pic.twitter.com/eQL7GaulPW

— Fear the Festivus (@fearthefin) December 14, 2019

Expected scratches: Dylan Gambrell

Injured reserve: Dalton Prout (upper body), Antti Suomela (upper body), Radim Simek (knee)

Canucks (via NHL.com)

Tanner Pearson — Bo Horvat — Josh Leivo
J.T. Miller — Elias Pettersson — Jake Virtanen
Antoine Roussel — Adam Gaudette — Brock Boeser
Tim Schaller — Jay Beagle — Brandon Sutter

Tyler Myers — Christopher Tanev
Jordie Benn — Troy Stecher
Quinn Hughes — Jalen Chatfield

Jacob Markstrom
Michael Dipietro

Expected scratches: Guillaume Brisebois, Oscar Fantenberg, Loui Eriksson, Zack MacEwen

Injured reserve: Tyler Motte (upper body), Alexander Edler (upper body), Tyler Graovac (lower body), Micheal Ferland (upper body), Thatcher Demko (concussion)

Where to Watch

Tonight’s game will get going from SAP Center at 7 p.m. Pacific/10 p.m. Eastern and will be broadcast on NBC Sports California in the Bay Area market and on CBC, Sportsnet, Citytv and SN360 in Canada as part of Hockey Night In Canada. Streaming, as always, is available via NHLtv (blackout restrictions apply). If you can’t make it to a TV, the Sharks app and 98.5 KFOX will have the radio call of tonight’s action.