All six rookies who were a big part of the Sharks’ 5-1 win in Vancouver on Thursday will remain in the lineup tonight as San Jose returns home to host the Carolina Hurricanes. Fresh off scoring his first NHL goal, Chris Tierney will once again play on the fourth line alongside fellow rookie Daniil Tarasov while Melker Karlsson, Barclay Goodrow, Mirco Mueller and Matt Tennyson will also draw into one of the most rookie-laden lineups in the league.

Tale Of The Tape

	@
18-26-7, 43 points	Record	28-18-7, 63 points
8th in Metropolitan	Rank	2nd in Pacific
50.0%	Score-Adj. Fenwick	50.9%
97.5	PDO	99.2
16.3	PP%	21.0
87.1	PK%	81.9

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

Projected Sharks Lineup

Joe Pavelski – Joe Thornton – Melker Karlsson
Patrick Marleau – Logan Couture – Matt Nieto
Tomas Hertl – James Sheppard – Barclay Goodrow
Chris Tierney – Andrew Desjardins – Daniil Tarasov

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Brent Burns
Mirco Mueller – Brenden Dillon
Matt Irwin – Matt Tennyson

Antti Niemi
Alex Stalock

Projected Hurricanes Lineup

Eric Staal – Jordan Staal – Elias Lindholm
Jeff Skinner – Victor Rask – Alexander Semin
Nathan Gerbe – Andrej Nestrasil – Jiri Tlusty
Brad Malone – Jay McClement – Patrick Dwyer

Andrej Sekera – Justin Faulk
Tim Gleason – Ryan Murphy
Ron Hainsey – John-Michael Liles

Cam Ward
Anton Khudobin

Last Meeting

In his NHL debut, Troy Grosenick had a ridiculous 45-save shutout as the Sharks escaped North Carolina with a 2-0 win on November 16th. Tomas Hertl scored late in the first period and Joe Thornton added an empty-netter as the Sharks spent the majority of the game in their own zone but were repeatedly bailed out by Grosenick’s outstanding play.

Storylines

• Despite ranking dead last in the Metropolitan division, the Hurricanes haven’t been quite as awful as their place in the standings indicates. They’re an average even-strength possession team with a great penalty kill that’s received decent goaltending from Cam Ward in what’s been a bounce-back season for him. Their biggest issue has been goal scoring, both at even-strength and on the power play, as several of their key players have undergone horrendous dry spells for much of the year.
• With Calgary’s 4-0 loss to Pittsburgh last night, the Sharks have a chance to gain a four-point cushion on the Flames and a six-point edge over the Canucks with a win tonight./