When the Sharks hosted Columbus a few weeks ago, I wrote that it wasn’t really a trap game because the Blue Jackets weren’t really as bad as their record would indicate. Let me start by saying the opposite about the Philadelphia Flyers. They are bad, they should feel bad and also — they are bad.

The Flyers ran 27th in corsi-for percentage (even strength, score adjusted) and 27th in goals-for per 60 (1.6 at even strength) and while their goals-against per 60 is respectable, it’s largely because they’re getting great goaltending. So, this is a game the Sharks should win pretty handily. So, naturally, this is a game worth being a little concerned over.

Tale Of The Tape

	@
10-8-0, 20 points	Record	6-8-4, 16 points
t-2nd in Pacific	Rank	6th in Metropolitan
51.8%	Score-Adj. Fenwick	46.2%
99.3	PDO	98.1
15.1	PP%	14.8
76.8	PK%	75.4

4PM PDT | Wells Fargo Center | Philadelphia, PA
TV: CSN-CA, CSN-PH | Radio: SJSharks.com, 98.5 KFOX
Know Your Enemy: Broad Street Hockey

Projected Sharks Lineup

Melker Karlsson – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski

Nikolay Goldobin – Patrick Marleau – Joel Ward

Joonas Donskoi – Tomas Hertl – Tommy Wingels

Matt Nieto – Chris Tierney – Mike Brown

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun

Paul Martin – Brent Burns

Brenden Dillon – Matt Tennyson

Martin Jones

Alex Stalock

Projected Flyers Lineup

Brayden Schenn – Claude Giroux – Jakub Voracek

Matt Read – Sean Couturier – Wayne Simmonds

Taylor Leier – Scott Laughton – Sam Gagner

Michael Raffl – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Chris VandeVelde

Michael Del Zotto – Radko Gudas

Nick Schultz – Luke Schenn

Brandon Manning – Shayne Gostisbehere

Steve Mason

Michal Neuvirth

Last Meeting

It took a shootout, but the Sharks downed the Flyers.

Storylines

• Patrick Marleau is just a point away from tallying his 1,000th.
• The Sharks have a three-game winning streak going in general and against the Flyers. Let’s move ’em both to four.
• Martin Jones is getting another start. He’ll (hopefully) start against Pittsburgh on Saturday, too, with Stalock getting the nod on Sunday.
• The Flyers’ special teams are even weaker (by percentages) than the Sharks — could be a good opportunity to pump up San Jose’s numbers. /