Sharks vs. Oilers: Second half of Alberta back-to-back
24 hours after a shootout loss in Calgary, the Sharks take the ice against the Oilers looking to pad their Pacific Division lead.
After losing in a shootout last night to the Calgary Flames, but picking up a point along the way that clinched their 10th-straight playoff appearances, the Sharks are right back at it tonight in Edmonton. They'll face an Oilers team that's crashed hard after a 10-4-3 stretch that was mostly the result of Ben Scrivens (remember him?), dropping back-to-back contests against the Sabres and the Flames, the latter by an 8-1 final score.
I can't imagine getting pulverized by their arch-rivals on home ice to punctuate a massively disappointing season was all that enjoyable of an experience; the Oilers are going to throw everything they have at the Sharks tonight, and with San Jose on the second half of a back-to-back, this is far from a guaranteed victory. But with just nine games left on the schedule and the Ducks only two points behind them with two games in hand, San Jose needs every win it can get. Hopefully we'll see line combinations similar to the ones that dominated the third period against Calgary. Per Todd McLellan, Logan Couture is fine after missing most of last night's game due to an injury sustained on a blocked shot but he might miss this one regardless.
 | @ |  |
| 46-18-9, 101 points | 25-38-9, 59 points | |
| 1st in Pacific | 7th in Pacific |
6:30PM PST | Rexall Place | Edmonton, Alberta
TV: CSNCA-HD, TSN | Radio: SJSharks.com, 98.5 KFOX
Know Your Enemy: The Copper & Blue, mc79hockey, Cult Of Hockey
Projected Sharks Lineup
James Sheppard - Joe Thornton - Brent Burns
Matt Nieto - Patrick Marleau - Tyler Kennedy
Marty Havlat - Joe Pavelski - Tommy Wingels
Andrew Desjardins - Adam Burish - Mike Brown
Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Jason Demers
Brad Stuart - Justin Braun
Matt Irwin - Dan Boyle
Projected Oilers Lineup
Taylor Hall - Sam Gagner - David Perron
Anton Lander - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Jordan Eberle
Matt Hendricks - Boyd Gordon - Tyler Pitlick
Luke Gazdic - Ryan Smyth - Ryan Jones
Martin Marincin - Jeff Petry
Andrew Ference - Justin Schultz
Mark Fraser - Oscar Klefbom
Ben Scrivens
Viktor Fasth