The San Jose Sharks kick off a five-game road trip tonight with a tilt against their long-time rival, the Los Angeles Kings. Team Teal suits up in Southern California after dropping their season opener to the Anaheim Ducks.
Evander Kane and Tomas Hertl scored goals in that game, but trouble on special teams ultimately doomed the Sharks as they fell 5-2 to the familiar SoCal rival.
Los Angeles, on the other hand, is getting its regular season campaign started this evening after closing out preseason play being shut out by the Ducks and Las Vegas Golden Knights respectively.
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Friday night marks the first of a three-game season series between the Sharks and the Kings. The Sharks won three of four games played against LA last season, wrapping up the series with a 4-1 victory at Staples Center last January.
The Sharks will be facing a slightly different Kings lineup than they have seen in previous meetups. LA will be without winger Dustin Brown, who suffered a broken finger during preseason play. It’s expected that Ilya Kovalchuk, who signed a three-year deal with the Kings during the off-season, will take Brown’s place on the top line alongside Anze Kopitar and Alex Iafallo. Rookie Austin Wagner is expected to make his NHL debut tonight on LA’s third line.
Sharks projected lines
Timo Meier - Joe Thornton - Joe Pavelski
Tomas Hertl - Logan Couture -Kevin Labanc
Evander Kane - Antti Suomela - Joonas Donskoi
Marcus Sorensen - Barclay Goodrow - Melker Karlsson
San Jose Sharks
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Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Erik Karlsson
Joakim Ryan - Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon -Justin Braun
Martin Jones -starter
Aaron Dell
Kings projected lines
Alex Iafallo - Anze Kopitar - Ilya Kovalchuk
Tanner Pearson - Jeff Carter- Tyler Toffoli
Austin Wagner - Adrian Kempe - Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford - Michael Amadio - Nate Thompson
Derek Forbort - Drew Doughty
Jake Muzzin - Alec Martinez
Dion Phaneuf - Oscar Fantenberg
Jonathan Quick -expected starter
Jack Campbell