No rest for the wicked, as the San Jose Sharks embark on yet another back-to-back on the road. This time, they’ll be following up their contest in Buffalo with Wednesday night's rumble in Toronto against the Maple Leafs.
Superstar forward Auston Matthews is set to return to the lineup after being sidelined with a shoulder injury and missing 14 games. The center has 16 points (10 goals, six assists) through 11 games played for Toronto this season.
The Leafs will no doubt enjoy having Matthews back in the mix even though they’ve been successful in his absence, going 7-3-0 in their last 10 games.
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The Sharks, on the other hand, are looking to put more notches in the win column. They put together an impressive come-from-behind effort against the Sabres on Tuesday thanks to Joe Pavelski’s two third-period goals – before falling 3-2 in overtime.
This is the second and final regular season meeting between the Sharks and Leafs for the 2019 campaign. In their previous meeting this year, the Leafs emerged victorious with a 5-3 win. Through 50 franchise meetings San Jose is 23-21-5-1 against Toronto.
Sharks projected lines and pairs:
San Jose Sharks
Evander Kane – Joe Pavelski – Joonas Donskoi
Tomas Hertl – Logan Couture – Kevin Labanc
Barclay Goodrow – Joe Thornton – Marcus Sorensen
Lukas Radil – Antti Suomela – Melker Karlsson
Joakim Ryan – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon – Erik Karlsson
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Aaron Dell -- Confirmed starter
Martin Jones
Leafs projected lines and pairs:
Zach Hyman – John Tavares – Mitch Marner
Patrick Marleau – Auston Matthews – Kasperi Kapanen
Andreas Johnsson – Nazem Kadri – Connor Brown
Tyler Ennis – Par Lindholm – Josh Leivo
Morgan Rielly – Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner – Martin Marincin
Travis Dermott – Igor Ozhiganov
Frederik Andersen – projected starter
Garret Sparks