GAME DAY: Golden Knights, Sharks ready for rematch in San Jose
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Golden Knights and San Jose Sharks complete their season-opening, home-and-home series Friday at SAP Center.
Opening faceoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., and the game will be televised on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain.
The Knights (1-0-0) rolled past San Jose 4-1 on Wednesday thanks to two goals by right wing Reilly Smith and a goal from 20-year-old center Cody Glass in his NHL debut.
“We’ve got to play the same way,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “We played a real good game, the home opener and we had a lot of excitement in our building, and it’s fun to play in that game. We’ve got to come on the road and play a real good game here against a real good team.”
🚨 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐒𝐀𝐍 𝐉𝐎𝐒𝐄 🚨
It's Opening Night at the Tank presented by @matrixpowered!
🦈: https://t.co/r4f71ANypD
🎟: https://t.co/vlOKEdg7tW pic.twitter.com/SWjLNWbQRd— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) October 4, 2019
Defenseman Nic Hague will make his NHL debut for the Knights in place of Nate Schmidt, who suffered a lower-body injury in a knee-on-knee collision with Sharks captain Logan Couture midway through the first period Wednesday and is listed as week to week.
Hague was a second-round pick in 2017, and the 6-foot-6-inch rookie had 13 goals and 32 points to go with a plus-31 rating in 75 games in the American Hockey League last season.
Marc-Andre Fleury is expected to start in net for the Knights and make his 800th career NHL appearance. He would be the 16th goaltender in league history to reach the milestone.
San Jose defenseman Erik Karlsson missed Wednesday’s opener to “attend to a personal matter” and announced Thursday his wife gave birth to their daughter.
He participated in the Sharks’ morning skate, and coach Peter DeBoer said afterward that Karlsson is expected to play.
“Having said that, if we don’t play better than we did last game, two Erik Karlssons aren’t going to help us win,” DeBoer said. “He’s going to help, but we’ve got to be better as a group.”
San Jose (0-1-0) also will be without forward Evander Kane, who is serving the second game of his three-game suspension for abuse of an official.
Forwards Timo Meier and Kevin Labanc, who were injured during the third period of the Sharks’ loss, returned to practice Thursday and are expected to play.
Defenseman Dalton Prout (upper body) was placed on injured reserve, and the Sharks recalled defenseman Jake Middleton from the AHL. Tim Heed is expected to remain in the lineup and skate with rookie Mario Ferraro.
Golden Knights projected lineup
Forwards
Jonathan Marchessault-William Karlsson-Reilly Smith
Max Pacioretty-Cody Glass-Mark Stone
Brandon Pirri-Paul Stastny-Valentin Zykov
William Carrier-Tomas Nosek-Ryan Reaves
Defensemen
Brayden McNabb-Shea Theodore
Jon Merrill-Nick Holden
Nic Hague-Deryk Engelland
Goaltender
Marc-Andre Fleury
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Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.