The San Jose Sharks face the Detroit Red Wings with both teams looking to improve from rough seasons. The Sharks have a 14-25-9 record and with back-to-back losses have fallen to the bottom of the Pacific Division. The Red Wings have a 19-18-8 record and with only three wins in the last 10 games are near the bottom of the Atlantic Division. Both teams look to improve in their divisions and improve in the playoff picture and the upcoming game looks to be a good one as result.
The Sharks are having a rough season despite their offense stepping up and scoring 3.00 goals per game. Timo Meier, Tomas Hertl, and Logan Couture have scored 57 goals and 68 assists to lead the top two lines but the rest of the offense has also stepped up. Alexander Barbanov, Kevin Labanc, and Nico Sturm have combined for 27 goals and 42 assists while defenseman Erik Karlsson has added 15 goals and 47 assists from the point to open up the offense.
The offense has been great but the defense is one of the worst in the league, allowing 3.73 goals per game with nine goals in the last two games. Erik Karlsson and Jaycob Megna have combined for 4.3 defensive point shares but the rest of the unit has struggled, allowing opponents to find open shots on the net at will. In addition, goaltender James Reimer has struggled with a .895 save percentage and a 3.26 goals-against average on 812 shots.