Canucks at Sharks
The streaking San Jose Sharks look to continue their dominance of the Vancouver Canucks this season and extend their point streak to eight games on Thursday when they host their spiraling Pacific Division rivals. Although it has dropped six straight home contests versus Vancouver, San Jose began February by hitting the road for a 4-1 triumph over the Canucks and skated to victory by the same score on Saturday to start its current two-game winning streak and highlight a 4-0-3 stretch.
Tomas Hertl notched an assist in the first meeting and scored in the latter before tallying with 1:24 remaining to send the Sharks to a 3-1 victory over Toronto on Tuesday. While first-place San Jose holds a five-point lead over Edmonton atop the division, Vancouver has seen the writing on the wall with losses in three straight and 10 of 13 to embrace the role of seller prior to the trade deadline. The Canucks shuffled Alexandre Burrows to Ottawa for prospect Jonathan Dahlen on Monday before fellow forward Jannik Hansen was sent to San Jose the following day for former first-round forward Nikolay Goldobin and a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2017 draft. Hansen, however, likely will not be on the ice against his former team on Thursday as the 30-year-old cited a need for a United States work visa.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, Sportsnet Pacific (Vancouver), CSN California (San Jose), NHL.TV
ABOUT THE CANUCKS (26-29-7): Goldobin has provided a spark with San Jose's American Hockey League affiliate, collecting 15 goals and 26 assists this season and 85 points total over the last two. "Nikolay is a gifted offensive player with good hands and good release on his shot," Vancouver general manager Jim Benning said of the 21-year-old Russian, who has scored and set up a goal in two games with the Sharks in 2016-17. "His play away from the puck has improved this year in the American League and we believe with his skill set and continued development, he has the ability to become a valuable member of our team."
ABOUT THE SHARKS (37-18-7): Hansen had mixed feelings after leaving the only NHL team with which he's played during his career for a club that is a Stanley Cup contender. "(The Sharks) are a very good team that has a shot. That part is extremely exciting to me," the speedy Hansen said. "The other side of that coin is leaving (Vancouver). I enjoyed playing here. My family likes it here. A lot of very good friends throughout the organization. So it's with a heavy heart that I'm leaving a place like this." Fellow forward Patrick Marleau, who has spent his entire 19-year career with San Jose, has scored a goal in both encounters with the Canucks and is riding a three-game point streak.
OVERTIME
1. San Jose veteran C Joe Thornton needs one assist to become the 13th NHL player to reach 1,000 for his career.
2. Canucks LW Daniel Sedin scored his team's lone goal in most recent meeting with the Sharks and extended his point streak to five games (one goal, four assists) by setting up a tally in Tuesday's 3-2 overtime loss to Detroit.
3. San Jose G Martin Jones has stopped 67 of 69 shots to win both outings against Vancouver this season and improve his career mark versus the club to 4-1-0 with a 1.61 goals-against average