Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the San Jose Sharks (28-12-6, 62 points) and Washington Capitals (22-16-7, 51 points) skate against each other live from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. in the first of two meetings this season. The game can be live streamed here. San Jose fans can do the same on KFOX 102.1 while Washington fans can do the same on WFED 1500.
San Jose enters a stretch of three road games against Eastern Conference teams and have won six of their last 10 while Washington embarks on a swing of three games in four nights and have lost five of their last seven.
The Sharks are coming off of a night where their shooters were stymied in a rare shutout loss 1-0 at the hands of the Boston Bruins.
"Basically what it came down to was a little bit of puck luck," coach Todd McLellan told the San Jose Mercury News. "A bounce went their way, went to their stick, and it didn't go to ours. Nothing we have to hang our heads over."
The Capitals are coming off of a 2-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday and have been turning to rookie goaltender Philipp Grubauer a lot lately.
"He's playing good, he looked solid in the net. Every guy's going to have his moments for sure and you can't over read that," coach Adam Oates said per the Washington Post. "He's got plenty of rest too. I think he's doing good, don't want to overstate it either."
Grubauer is 6-2-4 with a 2.16 GAA and a .934 save percentage. The Sharks will likely start Antti Niemi, who is 23-10-6 with a 2.39 GAA and a .913 save percentage. In his last two games, Niemi has stopped 45 of 47 shots he's faced.
San Jose has been led offensively by Joe Thornton, who has 50 points off of a league-high 45 assists and five goals while Joe Pavelski has found the back of the net 21 times and added 22 helpers for 43 points and Patrick Marleau has lit the lamp 20 times and added 22 assists for 42 points.
Nicklas Backstrom has paced Washington with 48 points off of 11 markers and 37 assists while Alex Ovechkin has an NHL-best 32 tallies and 14 helpers for 46 points and Mikhail Grabovski has found the twine 12 times and added 20 assists for 32 points.
Both teams look to bounce back from losses when the Sharks and Capitals hit the ice at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. tonight.
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