No matter how the San Jose Sharks finish this season, they\u2019re appreciative of how the energy is back at SAP Center and Sharks Ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely the best atmosphere since I\u2019ve been here,\u201d Mario Ferraro, who\u2019s played for the Sharks from 2019 to now, said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s a really special place to play, they\u2019ve been so supportive over the past two years, just to grow with this year has been pretty amazing,\u201d second-year star Will Smith, who\u2019s been a big part of bringing back the excitement, said.<\/p>\n
2021 No. 7 pick William Eklund, pretty much the lone holdover from the pipeline, pre-Smith and Macklin Celebrini, is excited for the regular season home finale tonight: \u201cHopefully, it\u2019s one of the loudest games of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s still a meaningful one: San Jose is now four points out of the last wild card spot in the West, held by the Los Angeles Kings, four games left, no games in hand on the Kings, three teams to leapfrog.<\/p>\n
San Jose Sharks (37-34-7)<\/p>\n
Yaroslav Askarov will start.<\/p>\n
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Veteran Alex Nedeljkovic has outperformed 23-year-old Askarov since November, but the goalie of the future is the goalie now.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think Yaro is going to be our No. 1 goalie,\u201d head coach Ryan Warsofsky said, \u201cand when you\u2019re the No. 1 goalie, you get these games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Warsofsky did stress that Thursday\u2019s 6-1 loss at the Anaheim Ducks wasn\u2019t on Askarov, but a porous team defense.<\/p>\n
Igor Chernyshov and Adam Gaudette will draw back in. The Sharks did not reveal lines in morning skate; of note, Celebrini and Alex Wennberg didn\u2019t participate but will play tonight.<\/p>\n
So why did Warsofsky scratch top prospect Chernyshov on Thursday?<\/p>\n
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\u201cJust some details that we\u2019ve been on him about were lacking there. Just try to clean those up,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy that\u2019s we\u2019re very excited about, he\u2019s got a lot of talent and ability to play, and we\u2019re excited to get him back in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Warsofsky also laid out the off-season plan for the 20-year-old power winger.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne will be the conditioning aspect. It\u2019s not like he\u2019s in bad shape, but to be able to play top-six in the National Hockey League every single night, you got to be able to run. You got to be able to go and be well-conditioned, especially if you want to play with 71,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cThe other side of it is just the details you got to play with, without the puck. Those are critical to play in certain situations, to play against other teams. Whether that be a top line or a second line, your details away from the puck have to be really dialed in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vancouver Canucks (22-48-8)<\/p>\n
This is how NHL.com projects the Canucks\u2019 line-up<\/a>:<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Drew O\u2019Connor \u2014 Elias Pettersson \u2014 Jake DeBrusk Zeev Buium \u2014 Filip Hronek Where To Watch<\/p>\n Puck drop between the San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks is at 7 PM PT at SAP Center. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.<\/p>\n The post Preview\/Lines #79: Excitement Back at Shark Tank, What\u2019s Chernyshov Got To Improve, Why Askarov Over Nedeljkovic<\/a> appeared first on San Jose Hockey Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No matter how the San Jose Sharks finish this season, they\u2019re appreciative of how the energy is back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[115560,4214,4215,4216,824,75237,1184,115559,109362,20225,41677,3517,41678,41680,82910,115566,60134,1706,1035,19559,115561,4217,62460,76625,115562,115564,1036,88,90,89,98,2577,21161,115563,13190,115565,20226,3578,2105,3516,59263],"class_list":{"0":"post-263331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-aatu-raty","9":"tag-adam-gaudette","10":"tag-alex-nedeljkovic","11":"tag-alex-wennberg","12":"tag-anaheim-ducks","13":"tag-brock-boeser","14":"tag-ca","15":"tag-curtis-douglas","16":"tag-dellandrea","17":"tag-elias-pettersson","18":"tag-filip-hronek","19":"tag-igor-chernyshov","20":"tag-jake-debrusk","21":"tag-kevin-lankinen","22":"tag-klingberg","23":"tag-liam-ohgren","24":"tag-linus-karlsson","25":"tag-los-angeles-kings","26":"tag-macklin-celebrini","27":"tag-marco-rossi","28":"tag-marcus-pettersson","29":"tag-mario-ferraro","30":"tag-max-sasson","31":"tag-nils-hoglander","32":"tag-pierre-olivier-joseph","33":"tag-regenda","34":"tag-ryan-warsofsky","35":"tag-san-jose","36":"tag-san-jose-headlines","37":"tag-san-jose-news","38":"tag-san-jose-sharks","39":"tag-sap-center","40":"tag-st-louis-blues","41":"tag-teddy-blueger","42":"tag-the-sharks","43":"tag-tom-willander","44":"tag-vancouver-canucks","45":"tag-will-smith","46":"tag-william-eklund","47":"tag-yaroslav-askarov","48":"tag-zeev-buium"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Liam Ohgren \u2014 Marco Rossi \u2014 Brock Boeser
Max Sasson \u2014 Teddy Blueger \u2014 Linus Karlsson
Curtis Douglas \u2014 Aatu Raty \u2014 Nils Hoglander<\/p>\n
Marcus Pettersson \u2014 Tom Willander
Elias Nils Pettersson \u2014 Pierre-Olivier Joseph<\/p>\n