The Tampa Bay Lightning are set to finish off their California road trip tonight, as they visit the San Jose Sharks at the SAP Center.
It's a battle of two trending teams, as the Lightning have won six in a row while the Sharks have been exceeded expectations this season and are on a three-game win streak of their own.
Before the game, Jon Cooper and Ryan Warsofsky confirmed that Andrei Vasilevskiy and Yaroslav Askarov would be between the pipes for their respective teams in a battle of two countrymen.
Before the game, almost the entirety of Cooper's press availability was dedicated to questions about the Sharks' young superstar, Macklin Celebrini. Celebrini, who will play under Cooper for Canada at the Olympic Games, leads the Sharks in points by a significant margin. In 40 games, he has 22 goals and 62 points as a 19-year-old. Second on the team is the currently injured Will Smith with 29 points in 33 games.
As for the Lightning, Nikita Kucherov has been on a massive hot-streak as of late with six goals and 11 points in his last five outings.
San Jose Sharks Lines (Per Max Miller):
Eklund - Celebrini - Chernyshov
Graf - Wennberg - Toffoli
Regenda - Dellandrea - Skinner
Goodrow - Ostapchuk - Reaves
Ferraro - Mukhamadullin
Orlov - Liljegren
Dickinson - Iorio
Tampa Bay Lightning Lines per Daily Faceoff:
Goncalves - Point - Kucherov
Hagel - Cirelli - Guentzel
Holmberg - Gourde - Girgensons
Paul - James - Bjorkstrand
Moser - Raddysh
D'Astous - Cernak
Carlile - Crozier