The San Jose Sharks are back at the SAP Center tonight as they host the Los Angeles Kings for their second and final game of their opening homestand.
The Sharks were able to clinch a victory from the jaws of defeat after nearly clinching defeat from the jaws of victory against the Florida Panthers on opening night. They went up 3-0, then surrendered that lead and allowed the Panthers to tie things up in the third period before Luca Cagnoni was the overtime hero, giving the Sharks their first win on opening night in half of a decade.
Tonight, the Sharks need to find a way to truly overcome some of their bad habits. Although they got the result against the Panthers, they still didn't play a full sixty minutes which has become the hallmark of their rebuild. Now that Mike Grier has started moving this team away from a rebuild and toward contention, that habit needs to stay in the past. They need to keep their foot on the gas all night and they can't give up two goals in 17 seconds to let their opponent back in the game.
The Sharks also need to be considerably more disciplined. This extends beyond just the young players who you'd expect to spend some time in the box, as the only part of the young core to take a penalty, besides Collin Graf's fighting major, was Cagnoni. Otherwise, it was the veterans heading to the box. Darnell Nurse, who is infamous for taking a considerable amount of penalties, had two almost identical infractions on opening night. Kiefer Sherwood went to the box twice, and Mason Marchment also took a penalty. The Sharks can't spend more than half of a period on the penalty kill each night and expect to find success in the long-run.
Faceoffs are another key area that need drastic improvement going forward. Of the Sharks' four centers, only Alexander Wennberg won more faceoffs than he lost on opening night. Macklin Celebrini was an even 50%, which is acceptable given everything else he does on the ice. Michael Misa was at 45.5% against Florida, which isn't great but it's not the end of the world if it happens once in a while. Zack Ostapchuk on the other hand went 0-for-7 at the faceoff dot, which is unacceptable for a penalty killing fourth-line center. He'll need to be more effective in that regard moving forward.
Projected Kings Lines (Per Mayor's Manor)
Panarin - Byfield - Kempe
Zuccarello - Turcotte - Laferriere
Moore - Haula - Laughton
Armia - Perry
Edmundson - Clarke
Dumoulin - Doughty
Anderson - Ceci
Gustafsson
Forsberg
Kuemper
More on the Kings:
Projected Sharks Lines (Per Max Miller)
Marchment - Celebrini - Smith
Stenberg - Wennberg - Graf
Chernyshov - Misa - Toffoli
Goodrow - Ostapchuk - Sherwood
Nurse - Kesselring
Dickinson* - Allan
Orlov - Cagnoni
*Jacob Trouba is a game-time decision due to illness, if he plays, he'll take Dickinson's spot for the second straight game.
Askarov
Nedeljkovic
