In the final game of their five-game homestand, coming at the end of a stretch of 11 in 13 games at the Tank for the Sharks, San Jose will face arguably their toughest test of the entire run with a formidable Blues team in town. With three potent lines of scoring and a top-four on the blueline as good as any in the league, St. Louis has unsurprisingly hovered near the top of the league standings for much of the season to date.

The real question with the Blues is goaltending, which has now been replaced by an even more significant question: why the hell did this team sign Martin Brodeur? Fresh off allowing six goals in Los Angeles on Thursday night, including a Dwight King one-hopper on Saturday night, the washed-up 70-year-old won’t be in net against the Sharks tonight which is a shame as it would have made ending this homestand on a high note and extending their winning streak to five games a much easier task for San Jose.

Tale Of The Tape

	@
21-9-2, 44 points	Record	18-11-4, 40 points
2nd in Central	Rank	2nd in Pacific
52.7%	Score-Adj. Fenwick	52.0%
100.4	PDO	99.7
25.4	PP%	24.2
79.2	PK%	83.9

7:30PM PST | SAP Center | San Jose, California
TV: CSNCA-HD | Radio: SJSharks.com, 98.5 KFOX
Know Your Enemy: St. Louis Game Time

Projected Sharks Lineup

Tomas Hertl – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Patrick Marleau – Logan Couture – Tommy Wingels
Barclay Goodrow – James Sheppard – Melker Karlsson
John Scott – Andrew Desjardins – Tye McGinn

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon – Brent Burns
Scott Hannan – Matt Tennyson

Antti Niemi
Alex Stalock

Projected Blues Lineup

Alexander Steen – Jori Lehtera – Vladimir Tarasenko
Joakim Lindstrom – David Backes – T.J. Oshie
Patrik Berglund – Paul Stastny – Dmitrij Jaskin
Steve Ott – Maxim Lapierre – Ryan Reaves

Jay Bouwmeester – Kevin Shattenkirk
Chris Butler – Alex Pietrangelo
Barret Jackman – Ian Cole

Jake Allen
Martin Brodeur

Last Meeting

A little over one full calendar year ago, on December 17th 2013, the Sharks got goals from Joe Pavelski, Matt Irwin, Brent Burns and Marty Havlat in a 4-2 win over the Blues in St. Louis.

Storylines

• Antti Niemi will face Jake Allen in net.
• Based on morning skate, Tye McGinn will likely take Chris Tierney’s spot on the fourth line.
• The Sharks will host the Blues again on January 3rd and for a third time on January 8th./