The San Jose Sharks finish up the short two/three game road trip (three if you count that it straddled the Christmas break) with a visit to the Anaheim Ducks. The Sharks are coming off a 6-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks, while the Ducks are coming off a 6-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday. Both teams are in a playoff spot as of this morning. The Ducks are second in the Pacific Division with a 21-15-2 record, while the Sharks are 18-17-3 and hold the second wild card spot.
The Ducks seem to have some similar issues to the Sharks at this point in the season, and that’s getting consistent scoring from throughout the lineup.
“I think we’ve had some stretches there where we’re looking for a little bit more ignition or lighten-up some lines to get more productivity,” Head Coach Joel Quenneville told NHL.com this morning. “I know we’re not going to score at the rate we did when we started the season throughout the year, but it’d be nice to get a little more consistency in our scoring.”
Like the Sharks, there are some young contributors, like Anaheim’s leading scorer, Leo Carlsson. Carlsson has 42 points in 37 games. He’s 17th in the league in scoring. Cutter Gauthier is the team’s top goal scorer. He has 18 goals this season. There are also some veteran scorers like Chris Kreider (13 goals). But there’s a pretty steep drop off from there. Only five players are in the double digits in scoring for the Ducks. Four players for the Sharks are in double digits in scoring.
In the net, Lukas Dostal is the team’s top goaltender. He has a 13-9-1 record and a .894 save percentage.
This is the second of four meetings between the two teams. The first time they met was on Oct. 11, when the Ducks won 7-6 in overtime. Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith each had three assists and Leo Carlsson had a goal and two assists. Carlsson had the game-winning goal in overtime. They’ll play again on April 1 and April 9.
Frank Vatrano and Radko Gudas are both expected to be out today for the Ducks. On the Sharks’ side, Timothy Liljegren, Will Smith, Philip Kurashev and Vincent Desharnais are all injured.
San Jose Sharks lines tonight
San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng reports that there will be no line changes and Yaroslav Askarov will start tonight.
Warsofsky confirms Askarov start. No line changes.
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) December 29, 2025
Not-so-fun fact: Askarov (13) 1st #SJSharks goalie since Reimer (19 in 2021-22) w/ more than 12 wins in a season.
Also, Liljegren & Desharnais injury update + Chernyshov talks 1st NHL goal.
All here: https://t.co/05FiHJ17LB
Forwards
William Eklund — Macklin Celebrini — Igor Chernyshov
Collin Graf — Alexander Wennberg — Tyler Toffoli
Adam Gaudette — Ty Dellandrea — Jeff Skinner
Barclay Goodrow — Zack Ostapchuk — Ryan Reaves
Defense
Mario Ferraro — Shakir Mukhamadullin
Dmitry Orlov — John Klingberg
Sam Dickinson — Vincent Iorio
Goaltenders
Yaroslav Askarov
Alex Nedeljkovic
Anaheim Ducks lines vs. San Jose Sharks tonight
According to NHL.com, these are the lines the Ducks are most likely to play tonight.
Forwards
Chris Kreider — Leo Carlsson — Mikael Granlund
Cutter Gauthier — Mason McTavish — Beckett Sennecke
Nikita Nesterenko — Ryan Poehling — Troy Terry
Ross Johnston — Jansen Harkins — Alex Killorn
Defense
Jackson LaCombe — Drew Helleson
Olen Zellweger — Jacob Trouba
Pavel Mintyukov — Ian Moore
Goaltenders
Lukas Dostal
Petr Mrazek
How to watch San Jose Sharks at Anaheim Ducks Dec. 29, 2025
The puck drops at 7 p.m. PT at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
Sharks fans can watch tonight’s game on NBCSCA or listen on the Sharks Audio Network.
Ducks fans can watch the game on Victory+ or FOX 11.
Be sure to come back here at game time to talk with other Sharks fans about what’s happening on the ice and around the league.
