Two teams that aren’t very good, frankly.
Just the facts
When: Tonight, 10:30 PM
Where: SAP Center – San Jose, CA
How to follow: NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub
Opposing perspective: Fear the Fin
Know your enemy
- 18-42-9, 45PTS, last in the Pacific Division
- Macklin Celebrini: 21G-29A-50PTS; William Eklund: 15G-35A-50PTS; Tyler Toffoli: 25G-20A-45PTS
- Alexandar Georgiev: 13-23-1, 3.64 GAA, .875 save percentage
Game notes
- On Thursday night, the Bruins faced a Vegas team looking to get itself together in preparation for a playoff run; tonight, they’ll face a Sharks team that has had its eye on the offseason pretty much since Opening Night.
- The Sharks are bad — they have the fewest points in the NHL (four behind the Blackhawks) and have the league’s worst GA/G figure and third-worst GF/G mark.
- However, there are some bright spots on the team, especially in Boston University product Macklin Celebrini, who has been as advertised this season. The rookie has 50 points in 57 games, no small feat for any rookie, but particularly impressive when you remember how bad the team is.
- Speaking of “producing on a bad team,” Tyler Toffoli’s 25 goals is a pretty remarkable figure, given the circumstances.
- The Sharks have lost five of their last six, with all five of those losses coming in regulation. The Bruins, meanwhile, have somewhat stealthily found themselves in the midst of another four-game losing streak. That one snuck up on me.
- No word yet on whether or not Fabian Lysell will feature tonight, though you’d expect the team may be more willing to use him after that feeble display in Vegas. Joe Sacco did say that he thinks he’ll play at some point on this trip, so…why not now?
- The Sharks are hosting a “Bay Area Unite” night tonight, celebrating the Golden State Valkyries, which is the Bay Area’s WNBA expansion team.
- San Jose’s head coach is Ryan Warsofsky, a Marshfield, MA native who is the brother of one-time Bruin David Warsofsky.
- This doesn’t necessarily mean much, but I was surprised to see just how much worse the Sharks and Blackhawks are than the rest of the league. Neither was supposed to be good, of course, but every other team in the league has just about 60 points, while these two are struggling to crack 50.
- The Bruins won the first meeting of the season between these two teams, a 6-3 win at TD Garden back in late January.
See ya tonight!