Programming note – Sharks-Canucks coverage starts today at 6:30 p.m. with Sharks Pregame Live on CSN California
WHERE THEY STAND
Sharks: 32-17-2, 66 points, 1st Pacific Division
Canucks: 23-21-6, 52 points, 6th Pacific Division
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PREGAME NEWS AND NOTES
***The Sharks will face the Canucks five times between now and the end of the season, beginning with tonight’s meeting at Rogers Arena. Three of the five games will be in British Columbia. Last season, San Jose captured three of the five games.
***San Jose has won seven of its last eight overall, including Tuesday night’s 3-1 home victory over Chicago in the first game coming out of the All-Star break. The Sharks are 14-10-1 on the road, where seven of their next 10 games overall will take place.
***Vancouver is 17-6-3 on its home ice, including an 11-3-3 mark in its last 18. The Canucks have earned at least one point in the standings in 12 of their last 15 games overall (9-3-3). This is their first game since the All-Star break.
San Jose Sharks
KEEP AN EYE ON...
Sharks: Malker Karlsson. Although he didn’t score against the Blackhawks, Karlsson was part of an effective fourth line on Tuesday night with Ryan Carpenter and Timo Meier. He’s had some success against Vancouver in his career, too, with three goals in seven games.
Canucks: Bo Horvat. The Canucks’ all-star representative leads Vancouver with 14 goals and is tied for the team lead with 32 points. The former ninth overall pick in the 2013 draft recently played in his 200th career game, and has 14 points (5g, 9a) in his last 15 games overall.
PROBABLE LINES
Sharks
Tomas Hertl – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Patrick Marleau – Logan Couture – Mikkel Boedker
Kevin Labanc – Chris Tierney – Joel Ward
Timo Meier – Ryan Carpenter – Melker Karlsson
Paul Martin – Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon – David Schlemko
Martin Jones
Aaron Dell
Canucks
Daniel Sedin – Henrik Sedin – Loui Eriksson
Sven Baertschi – Bo Horvat – Alexandre Burrows
Markus Granlund – Brandon Sutter – Jayson Megna
Brendan Gaunce – Michael Chaput – Jack Skille
Alex Edler – Troy Stecher
Luca Sbisa – Chris Tanev
Nikita Tryamkin – Philip Larsen
Ryan Miller
Jacob Markstrom
INJURIES
Sharks: Joonas Donskoi (upper body) and Dylan DeMelo (broken wrist) are out.
Canucks: Derek Dorsett (back surgery), Erik Gudbranson (wrist), Jannik Hansen (knee), Ben Hutton (fractured hand) and Anton Rodin (knee) are out.
QUOTEABLE
“Everyone knows how close he is [to 500 career goals]. … He’s been driving this team for a little bit here.” – Joe Pavelski, on Patrick Marleau