This is the most important game of the San Jose Sharks\u2019 season.<\/p>\n
Of course, the Sharks have been playing, for a franchise that hasn\u2019t seen the playoffs since 2019, pretty much Game Seven after Seven, as Randy Hahn<\/a> put it, since after the Olympics, trying to keep hold of a Western Conference wild card spot. These aren\u2019t, of course, true Game Sevens, but it\u2019s the closest that San Jose has been in a long time.<\/p>\n The Sharks, because of a game in hand over the Nashville Predators and Los Angeles Kings, have the last playoff spot in the West right now. All three teams have 79 points.<\/p>\n What makes tonight\u2019s match-up against the Preds especially critical is the second playoff tie-breaker, after Points %.<\/p>\n That\u2019s regulation wins, victories outside of overtime and the shootout. Nashville has 25, San Jose 24, and Los Angeles 19.<\/p>\n If the Sharks can beat the Predators in 60 minutes, that would go a long way toward their first playoff berth since Barclay Goodrow\u2019s first stint in teal.<\/p>\n The next tie-breaker, by the way, is regulation and overtime wins, San Jose has 34, Nashville 30, and Los Angeles 26.<\/p>\n Goodrow is the only Shark who played the last time that San Jose beat Nashville, 2-1 in the shootout on Nov. 9, 2019. Mario Ferraro was on the roster, but didn\u2019t dress.<\/p>\n The Sharks are currently on a 14-game losing streak against the Predators.<\/p>\n That includes the last \u201cbiggest game of the season\u201d against Nashville, a 6-3 loss at Bridgestone Arena on Mar. 24.<\/p>\n Since then, San Jose has peeled off points in five-straight, including four consecutive wins.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been playing really well as a team and not making the mental errors that I feel like we\u2019ve made sometimes throughout the season,\u201d alternate captain Tyler Toffoli said.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what happened in Nashville two weeks ago, when the Sharks fell behind 5-1 in the first period to the Preds.<\/p>\n No matter what happens tonight, credit to San Jose for rallying back when they\u2019ve been down, which they\u2019ve done all season.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year was a shitty year, but to see the turnaround and the growth from every single guy in this locker room, and the guys that have come in to help turn this thing around,\u201d Toffoli said, \u201cwe\u2019re having a lot of fun with it, and it\u2019s nice to be back in the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n San Jose Sharks (36-31-7)<\/p>\n Yaroslav Askarov will start.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the same lines as last game, otherwise:<\/p>\n Chernyshov-Celebrini-Smith Orlov-Desharnais Askarov<\/p>\n Same power play groups, too:<\/p>\n PP1: Orlov-Celebrini-Smith-Toffoli-Wennberg Nashville Predators (35-31-9)<\/p>\n Juuse Saros will start, the first time that Askarov will face his ex-teammate in a game.<\/p>\n When the @predators<\/a> traded Yaroslav Askarov to the @SanJoseSharks<\/a> in the summer of ’24, they did so in part because they decided Juuse Saros would be their goalie of the future. Tonight, Askarov and Saros go head-to-head for the first time in an NHL game. And the stakes are HUGE!\u2026<\/p>\n
Eklund-Wennberg-Sherwood
Graf-Misa-Toffoli
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Gaudette<\/p>\n
Mukhamadullin-Ferraro
Dickinson-Leddy<\/p>\n
PP2: Dickinson-Misa-Eklund-Chernyshov-Sherwood<\/p>\n