LA Kings vs San Jose Sharks Preview: Keys Points, Projected Lineups, and More

The Kings take a quick trip up the California coast tonight for their third matchup of the season against the San Jose Sharks.

A Look Back at the Last Meetings

The Kings and Sharks have met twice so far this season, with each team picking up a win. The Kings won the first meeting 3-2, while San Jose evened the season series with a 4-2 win of their own just five days later. LA has been led by Warren Foegele, Brandt Clarke, and Alex Laferriere in this matchup this season, with all three players having three points in the two matchups.

Key Points against the San Jose Sharks

1. Don't Underestimate Your Opponent

After starting the season 0-8-1, San Jose has played much better hockey as of late, skating to a record of 6-4-4 since October 28. Led by the resurgence of Mikael Grandlund and Mackenzie Blackwood, as well as the young stars in Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith, this is a much different San Jose team than years prior.

2. Special Teams Decide Games

The last two games against Buffalo and Seattle were decided by the special teams. In LA's 1-0 loss to Buffalo, the only goal of the game came on a Sabres powerplay, while the Kings went 0/5 on their man advantages.

Against Seattle, the Kings were perfect on both sides, killing all three Seattle powerplays and scoring on their only PP chance, which ended up being the game-winning goal. The Kings have gone 0/8 on the powerplay so far this season against San Jose while they've given up two powerplay goals, making today's special teams battle a key area of the game.

Below is how the Kings lined up during the entirety of the recent homestand. The Kings held an optional skate this morning, so we'll have a better understanding of any potential line changes closer to warmups.

What to know about the San Jose Sharks

As mentioned before, San Jose has been playing winning hockey as of late, and they lined up as follows in their most recent game against St. Louis:

Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky told the media earlier today that 4-5 different Sharks skaters are a game-time decision tonight. Warsofsky also did not reveal his starting goalie. Mackenzie Blackwood, Yaroslav Askarov, and Vitek Vanecek are all options for tonight.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30pm Pacific, with the pregame show starting at 7:00pm on FanDuel Sports West. An audio-only feed is available for today's game on the ESPN LA App.