San Jose Sharks vs. Vegas Golden Knights: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 11/15/2022

Time: 10 p.m. ET

Venue: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV

Where to watch: ATTSN-RM, NBCSCA

DraftKings: Golden Knights -255, Sharks +215

FanDuel: Golden Knights -265, Sharks +215

BetMGM: Golden Knights -238, Sharks +195

Caesars: Golden Knights -267, Sharks +215

Sharks: 5-9-3 (13 points)

Golden Knights: 13-3-0 (26 points)

Sharks: won 3-2 (SO) at Wild

Golden Knights: lost 3-2 vs. Blues

The last time the San Jose Sharks faced the Vegas Golden Knights, Phil Kessel was breaking records, scoring goals, and the Golden Knights dominated a third period heavy on forechecking and capitalizing on turnovers. When they meet again on Tuesday in Vegas, the end result should not be any different.

 

The Golden Knights had their nine-game winning streak end Saturday in a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues. It was expected after completing a 5-game road trip, sweeping it, and then coming back home on a short turnaround to lose to a Blues team that might be starting to find its game. Reilly Smith and Phil Kessel scored, but Adin Hill lost his first start of the year after winning his first five.

 

"Unfortunately, we didn't get to our game quick enough until it was third period," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "Nice to see a good push from the guys. Probably deserved better in the third. … For us, not good enough in the second. We took ourselves out of the game. Then we fought real hard to get back into it but didn't have enough."

 

The streak was going to end at some point and the Golden Knights are likely not positioned to go 80-2-0. But this is still a good team with a a young goalie tandem that can make things interesting. In the mean time, continuing to take down these lower-level teams is a good way to go.

 

The Sharks have won two in a row, in impressive fashion, against the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild, both on the road. A win against the Golden Knights might just be their Stanley Cup for all we know. The Sharks won 3-2 in a shootout in Minnesota on Sunday thanks to rallying goals from Steven Lorentz and Nico Sturm.

 

"We addressed it before the game that you know now. We won a game the other night (5-4 at the Dallas Stars on Friday), but we can't win a game and then drop three or four in a row again," Sturm said. "Now we got to start stringing some wins together if we want to push into that next echelon of teams and push for playoff spots. And that's hard, but I think we showed that when we play like we played in second and third today, we can play with teams like Minnesota."

 

We’ve talked before about how the Sharks are trying to find their way. They’re not the Sharks of yesteryear yet, but a renaissance year from Erik Karlsson and the development of other players under new coach David Quinn could make this a faster rebuild if they buy in. But goaltending still needs to be addressed with James Reimer and Kaapo Kahkonen and there needs to be some consistency in other areas before going forward.

 

 

The Golden Knights already went through their trap game and got a day off Monday before hitting the ice again. That should be more than enough to impose the same gameplan they had on Oct. 25 in San Jose and run through them again. Golden Knights win 4-1

Sharks are 66-105 when playing a fourth road game in seven days since 1996.

Sharks are 9-27 after winning two of three the last three years.

Golden Knights are 136-69 all-time against division opponents.

Over is 21-9 when the Golden Knights play their second game in five days.

Sharks:

Timo Meier -- Tomas Hertl -- Kevin Labanc

Matt Nieto -- Logan Couture -- Alexander Barabanov

Oskar Lindblom -- Nico Sturm -- Luke Kunin

Noah Gregor -- Nick Bonino -- Jonah Gadjovich

Jaycob Megna -- Erik Karlsson

Matt Benning -- Mario Ferraro

Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Radim Simek

James Reimer

Golden Knights:

Chandler Stephenson -- Jack Eichel -- Mark Stone

Reilly Smith -- William Karlsson -- Jonathan Marchessault

Paul Cotter -- Brett Howden -- Phil Kessel

William Carrier -- Nicolas Roy -- Keegan Kolesar

Alec Martinez -- Alex Pietrangelo

Brayden McNabb -- Shea Theodore

Nicolas Hague -- Zach Whitecloud

Logan Thompson

Points: Erik Karlsson -- 22

Goals: Erik Karlsson -- 10

Assists: Erik Karlsson -- 12

Goalie: James Reimer -- 4-5-2, 2.88 GAA, .908 SV%

Points: Jack Eichel -- 19

Goals: Jack Eichel -- 10

Assists: Alex Pietrangelo -- 12

Goalie: Logan Thompson -- 8-2-0, 2.31 GAA, .925 SV%