It’s time to see what the San Jose Sharks look like after the Mackenzie Blackwood trade. San Jose is in Carolina today to play the Hurricanes. While newly acquired Alexandar Georgiev is not expected to start, he will dress for the team. That’s not the surprise. The surprise is forward Nikolai Kovalenko may be called into action.
On the Sharks side of things, The Hockey News’ Ryan Henkel reported that Klim Kostin limped off the ice in pain after taking a puck to the foot in practice this morning.
San Jose Sharks forward Klim Kostin took a puck off the foot in practice and was down in pain for a bit.
— Ryan Henkel (@RyanHenkel_) December 10, 2024
Just now limped off the ice after trying to wait out the pain on the bench.
That puts Kostin’s status in question. Forward Will Smith is now on injured reserve, so he’s already out of the question. Even though Barclay Goodrow is expected to resume play today, with Kostin potentially injured, the team might need to put Kovalenko into action simply to ice 12 forwards.
The other option is to go with 7 defensemen and 11 forwards. Jack Thompson and Henry Thrun have been alternating in and out of the lineup, but both could, conceivably, dress today.
The Hurricanes lost to the New York Islanders on Saturday 4-3, the team’s fourth loss in the last five games. It’s left Head Coach Rod Brind’Amour frustrated by how his team is playing.
“Consistency is what we’re looking for. Even the other night, we had a great third period, had a decent first period and then were no good for eight minutes and that cost us the game,” Brind’Amour told Henkel today. “If you look at our losses, there’ve been a lot of that where it wasn’t a terrible game, and then all of a sudden, we’ve just had this stretch of ding, ding, ding, we’re giving up goals, and you just can’t recover from that. It’s avoiding those little lulls and obviously the other team is going to have their moments, it’s just not giving up grade-As and things you can’t recover from. That’s kind of it in a nutshell.”
The Hurricanes top scorer is Martin Necas, who has 42 points in 27 games. That’s heads and tails above Sebastian Aho, who has just 29 points in the same number of games. Necas also leads the team with 14 goals. Jack Roslovic is close behind with 13 goals.
In goal, Pyotr Kochetkov is the team’s starting goalie in the injury absence of Frederik Andersen. Kochetkov has an 11-4-0 record with a 2.68 goals against average and .893 save percentage.
San Jose Sharks lines tonight
We’re going to assume that Kostin is not well enough to play and we’re opting to give Kovalenko some breathing room and going with seven defensemen today.
Here’s what we think the lines will look like.
Forwards
William Eklund – Macklin Celebrini – Fabian Zetterlund
Luke Kunin – Alex Wennberg – Tyler Toffoli
Ty Dellandrea – Mikael Granlund – Barclay Goodrow
Carl Grundstrom – Nico Sturm
Defense
Jake Walman – Cody Ceci
Mario Ferraro – Timothy Liljegren
Henry Thrun – Jan Rutta
Jack Thompson
Goaltenders
Vitek Vanecek
Alexandar Georgiev
Carolina Hurricanes lines vs. San Jose Sharks
According to the Hurricanes’ website, this is the projected lineup for Carolina today.
Forward
Martin Necas – Sebastian Aho – Seth Jarvis
Eric Robinson – Jack Drury – Jackson Blake
Jordan Martinook – Jordan Staal – Andrei Svechnikov
William Carrier – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Jack Roslovic
Defense
Jaccob Slavin – Brent Burns
Dmitry Orlov – Jalen Chatfield
Shayne Gostisbehere – Sean Walker
Goaltenders
Pyotr Kochetkov
Dustin Tokarski
How to watch San Jose Sharks at Carolina Hurricanes on Dec. 10, 2024
The puck drops at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
San Jose Sharks fans can watch the game on NBC Sports California or listen on the Sharks Audio Network.
Carolina fans can watch the game on Fan Duel Sports Network or listen on ESPN 99.9 The Fan.
Be sure to come back here and talk with other Sharks fans about how the team’s newest forward and the new goalie are looking in teal.
