The Minnesota Wild and the San Jose Sharks will faceoff for the first time this season. The Wild are off to a hot start this season, going 8-2-2. The 18 points are good for second in the Central Division. In the meantime, the Sharks have won four of the team’s last five games, one of the more formidable recent records in the NHL.
If there’s one matchup that you want to keep an eye on, look to the power play. The Sharks’ power play is operating at 18.6%, while the Wild penalty kill is currently at 62.5%. It’s possible it’s on the man-advantage that this may be the best way for the Sharks to take advantage of a weakness of the Wild.
For the Wild, take a look at Kirill Kaprizov. He’s having an incredible season, we’re talking Art Ross Trophy level season. Kaprizov is tied for fourth in the NHL with 21 points (7 G, 14 A). The next closest is Matt Boldy with 13 points. Kaprizov’s seven goals also leads the team.
The Wild lost to LA 5-1 on Tuesday night, just the second regulation loss of the season. The team will look to get things back on track tonight.
Despite getting things cleared up with the coach, Jake Walman will not play tonight. According to San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng, Tuesday night was a coaching decision, but this one is a day-to-day injury.
According to #SJSharks, there are 2 separate things going on with Jake Walman.
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 7, 2024
He did not play on 11/5 for non-hockey reasons.
Warsofsky didn't want to divulge details, but said about the scratch: "No one is bigger than the team. We're about the team, and getting better as an…
It also sounds like Head Coach Ryan Warsofsky is going to reward Vitek Vanecek for his stellar performance in net. Vanecek gets his second start in the row.
San Jose Sharks lines tonight
Given that Walman is out, we’re not expecting any changes on the back end. Peng reports that Warsofsky isn’t committing to forward lines, so we’ll guess that they’re the same as the last game.
Forwards
Mikael Granlund – Macklin Celebrini – Tyler Toffoli
William Eklund – Alex Wennberg – Fabian Zetterlund
Barclay Goodrow – Will Smith – Luke Kunin
Carl Grundstrom – Nico Sturm – Ty Dellandrea
Defense
Mario Ferraro – Cody Ceci
Jack Thompson – Jan Rutta
Henry Thrun – Timothy Liljegren
Goaltenders
Vitek Vanecek
Mackenzie Blackwood
Minnesota Wild lines against San Jose Sharks tonight
As for the Wild, the Hockey News’ Dylan Loucks reports that these are the projected lines for the Wild.
Forwards
Kirill Kaprizov – Marco Rossi – Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson – Joel Eriksson Ek – Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno – Freddy Gaudreau – Ryan Hartman
Yakov Trenin – Marat Khusnutdinov – Jakub Lauko
Defense
Jake Middleton – Brock Faber
Jonas Brodin – Jared Spurgeon
Declan Chisholm – Zach Bogosian
Goaltenders
Marc-Andre Fleury
Filip Gustavsson
How to watch Minnesota Wild at San Jose Sharks November 7, 2024
The puck drops at SAP Center at 7:30 p.m. PT/9:30 p.m. CT. Sharks fans can watch the game on NBC Sports California. You can listen through the Sharks Audio Network app.
Wild fans will see the game on the FanDuel Sports Network. They can listen on KFAN 100.3 FM.
It will also air on ESPN+ for out of market viewers.
