The Minnesota Wild have allowed the fewest goals against to start the 2014-2015 campaign so the Sharks are going to have their hands full tonight against the Wild.

San Jose is coming off back to back wins against the Ducks and Avalanche and had their best four line performance to date against Colorado. Head Coach Todd McLellan says he’s hesitant to “dismantle” the lines, even if Goodrow is ready to come back.

The Sharks rookie has yet to play a game this year but was cleared to play yesterday. I don’t buy into McLellan not wanting to “dismantle” the lines, because he did a pretty good job of that during the four-game losing streak. I don’t see a problem in removing Burish from the lineup in favor of Goodrow. Everyone wants to see this kid play.

Keys to the Game

Attack the Wild PK

Minnesota as a 90.9% PK this year so the Sharks are going to have to get traffic and pucks to the net in a hurricane fashion. The PP has been great as of late so the short cycles should appear again tonight as the Sharks look to take advantage of any PP they may get against a stingy defensive team.

Opposite the Wild PK, their power play has been horrendous and has yet to score a goal. San Jose needs to keep it that way.

Antti Niemi

The Sharks goaltender appears to have the upper hand in the quest for securing the starting cage guardian job. Niemi will start his third straight game tonight after two great performances in the last two Sharks wins.

Niemi made over thirty saves in each outing and has the confidence of his head coach, a confidence that neither goaltender had officially until now.

If Niemi can turn in another solid outing then he will give the Sharks a chance to win; exactly what has been asked of him in the past. I'm cautiously optimistic right now given the workload that Niemi has been asked to undertake due to defensive weaknesses.

Defensive Stability

The Sharks played a great defensive game, in comparison to the rest of the year, against Colorado and if it wasn’t for overtime would have held their opponents to under 30 shots.

Under 30 should be the target again and a lot of that target hope will rest on Mueller/Burns have another great game as well as Irwin/Hannan not being a biblical disaster in their own end. Dream big, Sharks fans.

I'm also interested to see if the Sharks third line can put in a good follow up performance to their dominance in the Avalanche game. James Sheppard has been a big boost to the team since he returned and if he can continue that play, perhaps with a fourth line look of Nieto-Sheppard-Desjardins/McGinn, when Goodrow comes back the Sharks could have a very good looking bottom six as opposed to what we've seen all year.

It should be a great game as two of the Western Conference’s best get together for a showdown. Goodrow will be a gametime decision, McLellan says, so watch for him as the puck drop gets closer. The game starts at 8pmET(5pmPDT).

Other Notes:

The Sharks are back in the rumor mill again with Joe Thornton to the Leafs being the focus point. The return? Per Ek’s post today it’s Gardiner+.

The Sharks were also interested in Coburn from the Flyers at one point. I’ll come right out and say I’m glad that didn’t happen. I think Jeff Petry is a better option for the Sharks blue-line right now than Coburn(pre-injury) and even Gardiner. The Leafs youngster isn’t going to help get the shots against down.

A win tonight moves the Sharks to 6-2-1 on the road, a very impressive record to start the season and just what they needed with a road heavy start to the year. The disappointment so far, surprisingly, as come on home ice.

Thanks for reading.

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