SAN JOSE -- The Sharks close their 2019 regular-season campaign Saturday night with a standoff against the Colorado Avalanche.
San Jose will have Erik Karlsson back in the lineup for the first time since Feb. 26, as the elite defenseman returns from a lower-body injury with the hopes of getting into shape for the upcoming playoffs. Forward Timo Meier will be out of the lineup with an undisclosed injury and is considered day to day, per Sharks coach Peter DeBoer.
The Sharks can clinch second place in the Western Conference if they get one point out of Saturday’s game, which would ensure they have home ice in the conference final if they go on a run in the upcoming playoffs. Colorado, on the other hand, won’t know if it will be the first or second wild-card team in the West until the conclusion of Saturday’s games, with the Dallas Stars' fate also to be determined after they play the Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday’s game marks the third time the Sharks and the Avalanche will play each other this season. Through 95 total games between the franchises, San Jose holds a 44-40-5-6 record.
Sharks projected lines and pairs
Joonas Donskoi – Logan Couture – Joe Pavelski
Evander Kane – Tomas Hertl – Gustav Nyquist
Marcus Sorensen – Joe Thornton – Kevin Labanc
Micheal Haley – Barclay Goodrow – Melker Karlsson
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon – Erik Karlsson
Joakim Ryan – Justin Braun
San Jose Sharks
Martin Jones – projected starter
Aaron Dell
Avalanche projected lines and pairs
Gabriel Landeskog – Nathan MacKinnon – Alexander Kerfoot
Colin Wilson – Carl Soderberg – JT Compher
Matt Nieto – Derick Brassard – Matt Calvert
Sven Andrighetto – Tyson Jost – Gabriel Bourque
Samuel Girard – Erik Johnson
Nikita Zadorov – Tyson Barrie
Ian Cole – Patrick Nemeth
Semyon Varlamov – projected starter
Philipp Grubauer