Senators at Sharks
The Ottawa Senators and San Jose Sharks are two of the seven teams completely out of playoff contention, but aren't playing like it as they meet Saturday night in California. The clubs are each 3-1-0 in their last four contests, with Ottawa coming off a 4-3 victory over the New York Islanders while San Jose had a three-game winning streak snapped with a 3-2 loss to Minnesota on Thursday.
"It's fun to play against the playoff teams, the elite teams on our side of the league," Ottawa forward Mikkel Boedker told the media after scoring his second goal of the season in his 17th game and the club's league-leading 15th short-handed tally. "We came out and we played hard and I think it was a good win. (Craig Anderson) played well, so that was good to see." Anderson made 37 saves Thursday to snap a three-game slide, bouncing back from a 7-3 loss at Pittsburgh on Tuesday, and is likely to carry the load with backup Marcus Hogberg away from the team in his native Sweden for personal reasons. The Sharks outscored New Jersey, Pittsburgh and Toronto 13-4 in winning the first three contests of their six-game homestand before running into the Wild. "I don't think we gave up a whole lot," San Jose coach Bob Boughner told reporters about the Minnesota game. "They capitalized on a couple of their chances. We got away from how we played the last three games, especially in the other end. We got a little picky with our shots, we got a little fancier than what we were doing in our earlier games."
TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: NBCS California, Sportsnet One, Citytv
ABOUT THE SENATORS (24-32-12): Brady Tkachuk scored in each of the last two games and has 20 this season - two shy of the 22 he totaled in his rookie 2018-19 season. "He's a kid that plays with his heart on his sleeve out there," coach D.J. Smith told the media about Tkachuk. "He bangs bodies, he's reckless, and he makes it hard on the other team. Ultimately, it's great to see him get rewarded." Anthony Duclair returned Thursday after missing four games with an undisclosed injury and scored his active team-leading 23rd goal.
ABOUT THE SHARKS (29-34-4): Joe Thornton scored in his 1,633rd career game, moving to within two contests of Scott Stevens for ninth all-time, while his 1,507 points are 14th on the career list. Evander Kane (team-high 24 goals) was kept off the scoresheet after recording two points in each of his previous three games (three goals). Brent Burns and Timo Meier have each scored a team-high 44 points with Meier registering a goal and two assists in his last three contests.
OVERTIME
1, Ottawa is 1-for-15 with the man advantage in its last five games while allowing a power-play goal in each contest during that span.
2. San Jose has allowed only two power-play goals in 32 chances over its last 10 games, raising the league's top penalty-killing unit to 86.6 percent.
3. The Senators won the season's first meeting 5-2 on Oct. 27 behind Nick Paul's two goals and one assist.