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Sharks vs. Senators preview: Canadian portion of road trip ends in Ottawa

Tonight will be the last of the Sharks’ four straight games on Canadian ice as they wrap up the north-of-the-border portion of their seven-game road trip in Canada’s capital. They’ll face a Senators team that’s ridden Andrew “The Hamburglar” Hammond and a skilled, youthful lineup to an improbable playoff push and have the ability to leapfrog the Boston Bruins for the Eastern Conference’s final Wild Card spot with a win over San Jose.

Tale Of The Tape

San Jose Sharks

@

Ottawa Senators
35-29-8, 78 points
Record 36-24-11, 83 points
5th in Pacific Rank 5th in Atlantic
50.8%
Score-Adj. Fenwick 49.1%
99.3
PDO 101.2
21.4
PP% 16.7
79.0
PK% 83.0

4:30PM PDT | Canadian Tire Centre | Ottawa, Ontario
TV: CSNCA-HD | Radio: SJSharks.com, 98.5 KFOX
Know Your Enemy: Silver Seven, Bonk’s Mullet

Projected Sharks Lineup

Joe Pavelski – Joe Thornton – Melker Karlsson
Matt Nieto – Logan Couture – Tommy Wingels
Patrick Marleau – Chris Tierney – Tomas Hertl
Daniil Tarasov – Ben Smith – Barclay Goodrow

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

Antti Niemi
Alex Stalock

Projected Senators Lineup

Mike Hoffman – Mika Zibanejad – Bobby Ryan
Alex Chiasson – Kyle Turris – Mark Stone
Erik Condra – Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Curtis Lazar
Colin Greening – David Legwand – Zach Smith

Marc Methot – Erik Karlsson
Patrick Wiercioch – Cody Ceci
Mark Borowiecki – Eric Gryba

Andrew Hammond
Craig Anderson

Last Meeting

Despite taking a 2-1 lead on goals by Tommy Wingels and Patrick Marleau into the third period, the Sharks couldn’t close things out as Mike Hoffman converted a power play opportunity and added an empty-netter to cap a three-goal third period for Ottawa and a 4-2 Senators victory.

Storylines
  • Hammond, who made 28 saves to defeat the Sharks last month, is 13-0-1 with a .947 save percentage thus far in his NHL career. He’s also earned a lifetime supply of McDonald’s.
  • Former Shark Milan Michalek, who potted his 200th goal last week in the Senators’ enormous win over Boston, won’t play tonight due to injury.
  • The Sharks are no longer realistically part of the playoff race but a loss tonight combined with Dallas picking up at least a point against Buffalo would drop them to 22nd, a place in the standings that carries 5% Connor McDavid odds in the lottery./
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