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7-0-1, 15 points		5-1-1, 11 points
2nd in Western Conference		5th in Western Conference

7PM PST | Honda Center | Anaheim, California
TV: CSNCA-HD | Radio: 98.5 KFOX, SJSharks.com
Know Your Enemy: Anaheim Calling, Battle Of California

Projected Sharks Lineup

Patrick Marleau – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
James Sheppard – Logan Couture – Ryane Clowe
Tommy Wingels – Michal Handzus – Martin Havlat
Andrew Desjardins – Scott Gomez – Adam Burish

Brad Stuart – Dan Boyle
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Jason Demers
Douglas Murray – Justin Braun

Thomas Greiss
Antti Niemi

Projected Ducks Lineup

Matt Beleskey – Ryan Getzlaf – Corey Perry
Kyle Palmieri – Bobby Ryan – Teemu Selanne
Andrew Cogliano – Saku Koivu – Daniel Winnik
Emerson Etem – Nick Bonino – Brad Staubitz

Sheldon Souray – Francois Beauchemin
Bryan Allen – Sami Vatanen
Toni Lydman – Luca Sbisa

Viktor Fasth
Jonas Hiller

Despite having yet to suffer a regulation loss this season, the Sharks were pretty thoroughly dominated by the Anaheim Ducks last week at the Tank. Sure, a flukey goal by Logan Couture late in the third period forced overtime and an ensuing skills competition where Michal Handzus, who apparently sold his hockey-playing ability to the Robot Devil in exchange for shootout hands, won the game. But San Jose was outshot 53-44 and outchanced 17-9 at even-strength in that one as the Sharks’ usually-dominant top line was manhandled by their vile Ducks counterpart.

The frustrating part is that, result aside, it wasn’t all that unpredictable of a performance. Anaheim has had the Sharks’ number to an annoyingly healthy extent in the recent past. The Ducks have taken 8 of 13 meetings with San Jose since 2010 and have usually been full value for those wins. Based on (extremely) early season returns, this might also be the best team the Ducks have had over that span. Granted, they’ve been riding the percentages a fair bit; only Tampa Bay has scored on a greater percentage of its even-strength shots than the 12.8% the Ducks have cashed in. Meanwhile, no team in the league has managed a higher power play shooting percentage than Anaheim. Those clips aren’t sustainable.

But the fact that the Ducks are probably nowhere near as good as their 5-1-1 record would indicate just doesn’t seem to matter tonight. It never does when these California rivals face off. Regardless of their talent level, the Ducks always seem to manage to be a thorn in the Sharks’ side. But perhaps, during an early season in which everything that’s previously impeded the Sharks has gone in their favor, the team can finally start winning games with regularity against an Anaheim squad they should be better than. They’ve already done it once in the early going, time to stage a repeat. Go Sharks.