The San Jose Sharks look to get on a winning streak as they hit the road to take on Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.
Team Teal got in the win column in their first game back from the Christmas break with a victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday evening. Brent Burns, playing in his 1,000th career NHL game, scored the game-winning goal in the third frame and Tomas Hertl tallied a late empty-net goal to put San Jose on top, 4-2.
The Oilers were not so fortunate in their first game back from the holiday layoff, as they lost to the Vancouver Canucks, 4-2. It was Edmonton’s fourth loss in a row going back to before the break, which puts them at 6-5-1 on the month of December. They currently sit in sixth place in the Pacific Division.
This is the second meeting of the season between the Sharks and Oilers. In the teams’ first meeting, Edmonton notched a 4-3 overtime victory. In 120 total meetings between the two franchises, San Jose holds a 55-43-12-10 record.
Sharks projected lines and pairs:
Lukas Radil – Logan Couture – Timo Meier
Marcus Sorensen – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
San Jose Sharks
Evander Kane – Tomas Hertl – Joonas Donskoi
Kevin Labanc – Barclay Goodrow – Melker Karlsson
Radim Simek – Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon – Erik Karlsson
Martin Jones – projected starter
Aaron Dell
Oilers projected lines and pairs:
Alex Chiasson – Connor McDavid – Leon Draisaitl
Tobias Rieder – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jesse Puljujarvi
Milan Lucic – Kyle Brodziak – Zack Kassian
Valentin Zykov – Ryan Spooner – Ty Rattie
Darnell Nurse – Adam Larsson
Kevin Gravel – Matt Benning
Caleb Jones – Chris Wideman
Cam Talbot – projected starter
Mikko Koskinen