Lightning at Sharks
After seeing their three-game winning streak come to an abrupt halt, the San Jose Sharks look to return to their victorious ways on Thursday when they open a five-game homestand versus the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Sharks wrapped up a 3-1-1 road trip with a 5-1 setback against Chicago. Antti Niemi struggled versus his former team and the Sharks didn't have much in the tank after finishing their lengthy trek in the Windy City following four games in Western Canada.
Tampa Bay enters Thursday's tilt on the heels of back-to-back losses for the first time this season. Defenseman Victor Hedman collected a goal and an assist to reach the 100-point plateau and captain Martin St. Louis also set up a tally in his 1,000th career game in the Lightning's 5-2 setback to Los Angeles on Tuesday. Tampa Bay wraps up its four-game West Coast road trip in Anaheim on Friday before returning to the Sunshine State to open a three-game homestand versus the New York Rangers on Monday.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, SUN (Tampa Bay), CSCA (San Jose)
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (14-7-0): St. Louis isn't willing to overreact to the consecutive losses, opting instead to stress execution over emotion. "It's not a panic time," the captain said. "It's just about addressing the mistakes and correcting them. We've got to stop this. We don't want to turn a two-gamer into a four- or five-gamer." Tampa Bay allowed a pair of first-period goals for the second time in the road trip - after yielding just six total tallies in the opening session of its previous 19 contests.
ABOUT THE SHARKS (13-3-5): Joe Pavelski, who has scored a goal in back-to-back contests, escaped serious injury after his Mercedes SUV was involved in a car accident on Tuesday. Captain Joe Thornton saw his seven-game point streak snapped versus the Blackhawks, but has recorded 36 points (15 goals, 21 assists) in 32 career contests against Tampa Bay. The former Hart Trophy winner has 807 assists in his career - five behind Pierre Turgeon for 29th place on the all-time list - and his 1,140 points are just two back of Nicklas Lidstrom for 50th in career scoring.
OVERTIME
1. San Jose failed to score on the power play against Chicago after collecting five goals with the man advantage in its previous four contests.
2. St. Louis scored his second goal of the game in overtime as Tampa Bay won the last meeting between the clubs - a 6-5 decision on Feb. 16, 2012.
3. Sidelined with an upper-body injury since Oct. 19, San Jose's versatile Brent Burns could return to the lineup on Thursday.