SAN JOSE -- The Sharks host the Dallas Stars for the third and final time this season, and the message is clear: They need to play a complete game if they want to get the win.
“Just a complete 60 minutes,” coach Peter DeBoer said Thursday morning. “When I look at the two (previous) games, I thought we played really well for large portions of both games but didn’t do it for long enough.”
Added DeBoer about the Stars: “They’re a quick-strike team. They’ve got some real high-end guys there who can make you pay quickly if you make some mistakes or take your foot off the gas. I think that was the story of those two games.”
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SIGN UP HERE Dallas won the first two contests of the series, each time by one goal. Team Teal jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in their most recent match on Dec. 7, but the Stars tied things up in the second stanza and added two quick goals in the third to give themselves the edge.
Another big key for Thursday’s game will be to put Dallas on its heels instead.
“If we play our detailed game and frustrate them a little bit, they’ll take a couple penalties,” Tomas Hertl said. “(We need to) just play all 60 minutes. And be ready for them, because they have a lot of skill on offense.”
On the practice front, Joe Thornton missed a second morning skate in a row for undisclosed reasons. DeBoer said No. 19 was feeling better Thursday, but that his status would be a game-time decision.
San Jose Sharks
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Sharks projected lines and pairs
Evander Kane – Joe Pavelski – Joonas Donskoi
Tomas Hertl – Logan Couture – Timo Meier
Marcus Sorensen – Joe Thornton – Kevin Labanc
Melker Karlsson – Barclay Goodrow – Lukas Radil
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Radim Simek – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon – Erik Karlsson
Martin Jones – projected starter
Aaron Dell
Stars projected lines and pairs
Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Alexander Radulov
Valeri Nichushkin – Radek Faksa – Tyler Pitlick
Devin Shore – Jason Spezza – Brett Ritchie
Mattias Janmark – Jason Dickinson – Blake Comeau
Miro Heiskanen – Roman Polak
Esa Lindell – Julius Honka
Joel Hanley – Taylor Fedun
Anton Khudobin – projected starter
Ben Bishop