The San Jose Sharks are back on the road and ready to battle one of the Western Conference’s most stacked teams --- the Nashville Predators.
The Sharks are on a roll right now, coming off last week’s 2-0-0 homestand when they handily defeated the Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders. Saturday night’s victory over the Isles was highlighted by a series of fights, ending with the home team skating away with the 4-1 victory.
The Predators are coming off their own string of victories, having won four consecutive bouts, including a back-to-back in Canada over the weekend that led to coach Peter Laviolette sporting a bull head mask. Nashville currently leads the conference -- and the league for that matter -- with 14 points on the young 2018-19 season.
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Matchups between these teams tend to get fairly physical, dating to when the Sharks knocked the Predators out of the 2016 playoffs in a full seven-game series. The last time the Predators visited San Jose, captain Joe Pavelski got into a rare tussle that ended with him upending Ryan Johansen. When these teams last met up in Nashville, the Predators skated away with a 5-3 victory behind backup netminder Juuse Saros -- who is expected to get the start for the Predators on Tuesday night.
San Jose has faced Nashville 70 times in the team’s franchise history. The Sharks are 34-28-2-6 against the Predators lifetime.
Sharks' projected lines and pairs
Evander Kane -- Joe Pavelski -- Kevin Labanc
Tomas Hertl-- Logan Couture -- Timo Meier
Marcus Sorensen -- Antti Suomela -- Joonas Donskoi
Barclay Goodrow -- Rourke Chartier -- Melker Karlsson
San Jose Sharks
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Marc-Edouard Vlasic --Erik Karlsson
Joakim Ryan -- Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon -- Justin Braun
Martin Jones -- projected starter
Aaron Dell
Predators' projected lines and pairs
Filip Forsberg – Ryan Johansen – Viktor Arvidsson
Kevin Fiala – Kyle Turris – Craig Smith
Calle Jarnkrok – Nick Bonino – Ryan Hartman
Zac Rinaldo – Colton Sissons – Miikka Salomaki
Roman Josi – Ryan Ellis
Mattias Ekholm – P.K. Subban
Dan Hamhuis – Yannick Weber
Juuse Saros – projected starter
Troy Grosenick