Preview: Ducks vs Sharks

By Michael Walters

The Anaheim Ducks(13-9-5) continue the homestand against the San Jose Sharks(15-10-1). Anaheim has gone 1-0-1 in two meetings against San Jose this season.

Anaheim Outlook

The Ducks are coming off a wild comeback victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. With about four minutes to go in the third period, Anaheim trailed Carolina 5-3. The Ducks were able to score twice and tie the game in regulation. Corey Perry scored the game-tying goal after going over a month without a goal. The Ducks played well in overtime but had to settle for a shootout. Anaheim won the shootout and finally earned two points after regulation this season. Anaheim has 31 points and is just one point out of first place. Ryan Kesler leads the team with 12 goals. The rest of the scoring leaders include Rickard Rakell who has 10 goals, Jakob Silfverberg with eight goals and Andrew Cogliano with seven.

Keys To The Game

The Ducks have given up 13 goals in their last two games. They haven’t gotten their best from their goaltenders, but the defense needs to pick up their play. In the last contest against Carolina, John Gibson was left out to dry on two separate occasions. The Ducks can’t afford those kinds of breakdowns tonight against the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks only give up 2.12 goals on average per game, so if the Ducks dig a hole, then they may not get out of it against this team. The Ducks are tied with the Sharks in points, though San Jose has one game in hand.

Anaheim Projected Lineup

Offense
Nick Ritchie – Ryan Getzlaf – Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano – Ryan Kesler – Jakob Silfverberg
Joseph Cramarossa – Antoine Vermette – Ondrej Kase
Ryan Garbutt/Jared Boll – Stefan Noesen – Logan Shaw

Defense
Cam Fowler – Sami Vatanen
Hampus Lindholm – Josh Manson
Shea Theodore – Kevin Bieksa

In Net
John Gibson (Unconfirmed)

San Jose Outlook

The Sharks had won three in a row beating Arizona in overtime, then Los Angeles and Montreal in regulation. They lost their last game 4-2 to the Ottawa Senators. San Jose is in a tight battle with Anaheim for the top spots in the Pacific Division. The Sharks, Ducks, Flames, and Oilers are all only separated by one point. Brent Burns leads the Sharks with 11 goals. Logan Couture has 10 goals and Joe Pavelski has eight.

San Jose is a solid defensive team ranked second in the NHL in goals against per game(2.12). Their special team units both rank just outside the top ten. The power play is 18.5% efficient, which is 13th in the league. The penalty kill is 83.1%, which is ranked 14th. The Sharks like to shoot as much as possible ranking 7th in the league with 31.3 shots per game on the net. They are also second best in the league in limiting their opponents shots(25.6).

San Jose Projected Lineup (Dailyfaceoff.com)

Offense
Tomas Hertl – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Mikkel Boedker – Logan Couture – Joonas Donskoi
Patrick Marleau – Chris Tierney – Joel Ward
Matthew Nieto – Tommy Wingels – Melker Karlsson

Defense
Paul Martin – Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon – David Schlemko

In Net:
Martin Jones (Unconfirmed)

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