Two teams dealing with injury issues will face each other in the lone game on tonight’s NHL schedule. Despite defensemen Tobias Enstrom, Zach Bogosian, Jacob Trouba, Grant Clitsome and Mark Stuart all being out with injuries, the Jets have managed to be one of the bigger surprises in the league through the first half of the season, hanging on to a playoff spot and significantly improving by the underlying metrics largely thanks to the play of Ladd, Little and Wheeler up front, Dustin Byfuglien since being converted back to defense and Michael Hutchinson in goal, who looks to have stolen Ondrej Pavelec’s job as starter.

While the Sharks don’t have nearly the volume of injuries the Jets are currently dealing with, they will be without their best player in Joe Thornton for a second consecutive game and will need an improved effort from Marleau, Couture and Pavelski in order to get back in the win column against a suddenly dangerous Winnipeg team.

Tale Of The Tape

	@
20-14-5, 45 points	Record	20-12-7, 47 points
4th in Pacific	Rank	4th in Central
50.8%	Score-Adj. Fenwick	52.4%
99.2	PDO	99.3
21.8	PP%	16.9
82.2	PK%	85.1

5PM PST | MTS Centre | Winnipeg, Manitoba
TV: CSNCA-HD | Radio: SJSharks.com, 98.5 KFOX
Know Your Enemy: Arctic Ice Hockey

Projected Sharks Lineup

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

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

Antti Niemi
Alex Stalock

Projected Jets Lineup

Andrew Ladd – Bryan Little – Blake Wheeler
Mathieu Perreault – Mark Scheifele – Michael Frolik
T.J. Galiardi – Adam Lowry – Matt Halischuk
Anthony Peluso – Jim Slater – Chris Thorburn

Ben Chiarot – Dustin Byfuglien
Jay Harrison – Paul Postma
Adam Pardy – Julien Brouillette

Michael Hutchinson
Ondrej Pavelec

Last Meeting

Patrick Marleau, Tomas Hertl and Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored and Alex Stalock turned aside every shot he faced in the Sharks’ home opener to give San Jose a 3-0 victory over Winnipeg three nights into the season.

Storylines

• Freddie Hamilton has been recalled from Worcester but it’s unclear whether he’ll make it into tonight’s lineup.
• John Scott’s four-game suspension is over and he was taking line rushes this morning with Desjardins and McGinn.
• Michael Hutchinson will get the start in net for Winnipeg, probably against Antti Niemi as Alex Stalock is likely to get the start in his hometown of St. Paul tomorrow./