After going 1-1-1 on home ice, the San Jose Sharks are looking to regain their recent dominance on the road as they make a stop in Pittsburgh to duke it out with the Penguins.
The Sharks are coming off a disappointing overtime loss to the Boston Bruins. San Jose rallied from a 3-0 deficit to take a third-period lead thanks to a hat trick from Joe Thornton. But after Boston tied the game up late in regulation in debatable fashion, they notched the game-winner in OT to beat the Sharks 6-5.
San Jose enters Thursday’s game with 78 points in the standings, three points behind the Calgary Flames in the Pacific Division.
The Penguins, for their part, are coming off a 4-3 road win over the New Jersey Devils, going 5-4-1 in their last 10 contests. Pittsburgh currently sits in third place in the Metropolitan between the Washington Capitals and division-leading New York Islanders.
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This is the second and final time the Sharks will face the Penguins this year, after defeating them 5-2 in San Jose on January 15. In 40 total meetings between the franchises, San Jose holds a 20-15-3-2 regular season record.
Sharks projected lines and pairs
San Jose Sharks
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Timo Meier – Logan Couture – Joe Pavelski
Evander Kane – Tomas Hertl – Joonas Donskoi
Marcus Sorensen – Joe Thornton – Kevin Labanc
Barclay Goodrow – Micheal Haley – Melker Karlsson
Radim Simek – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon – Justin Braun
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Erik Karlsson
Martin Jones – projected starter
Aaron Dell
Penguins projected lines and pairs
Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Zach Aston-Reese – Evgeni Malkin – Phil Kessel
Jared McCann – Nick Bjugstad – Patric Hornqvist
Tanner Pearson – Matt Cullen – Dominik Simon
Brian Dumoulin – Kris Letang
Jack Johnson – Justin Schultz
Marcus Pettersson – Chad Ruhwedel
Casey DeSmith – projected starter
Matt Murray