St. Louis Blues @ San Jose Sharks Preview: Going for Five at Home
The Blues make their only trip of the season into San Jose to wrap up the season series against the Sharks.
The San Jose Sharks will look to extend their season-long home winning streak to five games tonight against the St. Louis Blues at 7:30 PDT.
San Jose is playing their best hockey of the season, conveniently with just ten games left until the quest for Lord Stanley's Cup begins. Not only are they winning at home but they're doing it against quality teams. Three of the four wins on the home winning streak have been against top quality Eastern Conference competition. The Sharks dismissed the Capitals ten days ago, came back to beat Boston 3-2 last week, and had 52 shots on goal to defeat the Rangers on Saturday. Throw in a 3-0 win against the poor Coyotes and San Jose is starting to make SAP Center feel like the Shark Tank again.
With 93 points, St. Louis is battling to win the Central Division for the second time in as many years. It will be another tough test for the Sharks who are still looking to leapfrog Anaheim in the division for second place.
Tale Of The Tape
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42-22-9 | Record | 41-25-6 |
2nd in Central | Rank | 3rd in Pacific |
52.6% | Score-Adj. Fenwick | 53.2% |
100 | PDO | 100.2 |
21.9 | PP% | 22.6 |
84.6 | PK% | 79.8 |
7:30 PM PDT | SAP Center | San Jose, California
TV: CSN-CA, FS-MW | Radio: SJSharks.com, 98.5 KFOX
Know Your Enemy: St. Louis Game Time
Last Meeting:
The Sharks scored twice against the Blues' (at the time) top penalty kill and doubled St. Louis up 6-3. Tomas Hertl, Logan Couture, and Joe Thornton scored two goals each for San Jose. Jumbo also registered two assists on goals by Hertl and Couture, giving him four points on the night.
Storylines:
- The Sharks are 2-0-0 against the Blues this season, with both wins coming at Scottrade Center in Missouri. In those two wins, San Jose has outscored St. Louis 9-4.
- Ryan Reaves will be skating on the same ice as Roman Polak, who was acquired hours before the Sharks took on St. Louis back on February 22 when Reaves received a five-minute major and game misconduct after boarding Matt Tennyson early in the first period. The NHL Department of Player Safety suspended Reaves three games for his blindside hit on Tennyson who hasn't returned since. Reaves knows he has a target on his back against San Jose so it is safe to assume that Polak and the Sharks will look to retaliate against Reaves and the Blues.
- A win tonight OR an Arizona loss to Edmonton would clinch a playoff berth for San Jose. We're *almost* back, baby.