Bolts Look to Head into the Break With a Win

By Jake Ricker

Tonight the Bolts will look to head into the All-Star break with a win after losing to the Leafs 4-2. Tonight they will be facing the San Jose Sharks, this will be the second and final matchup between these two teams with the first one ending in a 5-2 Sharks victory. The Bolts will be looking to even the series with a win tonight. Let’s take a quick look at how these two teams match up before puck drop.

Tampa Outlook

The Bolts will look to get back in the win column and hold their top spot in the NHL. Nikita Kucherov remains the NHL points leader with 76 and will now look to extend his lead tonight. The Bolts will without Tyler Johnson with a lower-body injury, he should return after the break. Coming into tonight the Bolts own the top-ranked power play with a 29.0% success rate. As for the penalty kill the Bolts are ranked 6th in the NHL with an 83.9% success rate. Vasy is yet to be defeated after a loss and has over a .970 save percentage in these games, so look for him to be lockdown in tonight’s game

Tampa Lines

Offense

Palat – Stamkos – Killorn

Killorn – Point – Kucherov

Joseph – Cirelli – Miller

Gourde – Paquette – Callahan

Defense

Hedman – Girardi

McDonagh – Cernak

Coburn – Stralman

Goalies

Vasilevskiy (Likely Starter)

Domingue

 

San Jose Outlook

The Sharks are coming off a rough 6-3 loss to the Arizona Coyotes. The Sharks will have an even taller task tonight as they face the best team in the NHL. Coming into tonight the Sharks are ranked 7th on the power play with a 24.5% success rate. As for the penalty kill the Kings are ranked 5th in the NHL with an 84.2% success rate. The Sharks offense will need to get off to a quick start tonight as they face a goaltender who is undefeated in games after a loss. The Sharks beat the Bolts once already so look for them to try and repeat that performance tonight.

San Jose Lines:

Offense:

Sorensen – Thornton – Pavelski

Radil – Couture – Meier

Kane – Hertl – Donskoi

Karlsson – Goodrow – Labanc

Defense:

Simek – Burns

Dillon – Karlsson

Heed – Braun

Goalies:

Jones (Likely starter)

Dell

 

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