Can The San Jose Sharks Swim In The Desert?

The San Jose Sharks are coming for the Arizona Coyotes

Hey, remember the last time the Coyotes played the Sharks? I sure as heck do. It was back on November 22nd in San Jose, and it was one of those games that you look back on and wonder how it was that the Coyotes ended up getting the 4-3 win in a shootout.

Case in point — the shot chart from that night shows pure dominance by San Jose in the shot attempt department alone.

As far as tonight goes, the Coyotes are back at home for the fifth of a six game homestand — and the good news for Arizona is that their home record against San Jose is a 31-24-3-5.

Some things to look for:

-The return of Zbynek Michalek to the lineup, who has been cleared to play after going down with a mystery injury

-The call-up of Phillip Samuelsson early Tuesday, as Martin Hanzal has been placed on IR and Brandon Gormley will be out with a lower body injury

–Brandon McMillan and Chris Summers have also been placed on waivers.

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Here are the possible lineups courtesy of AZ Central’s Sarah McLellan:

Erat-Vermette-Doan

Lessio-Gagner-Boedker

Rieder-Chipchura-Korpikoski

McMillan-Vitale-Moss

Ekman-Larsson-Michalek

Yandle-Stone

Summers-Murphy

Dubnyk

So — what do the Coyotes need to do to replicate the result from their last matchup against the Sharks? Here are my three keys.

1) When you get the lead, keep it:

The Coyotes absolutely need to take advantage of their home ice and come out hot. Much like they did against Ottawa, but with one big difference — keep that pace for 60 minutes and don’t blow an early lead. The Sharks are 10-1-1 when leading after one period, so taking a lead early would be a step in the right direction. Arizona jumped out to a two goal lead in their first matchup against the Sharks, and were able to hang on to force the game to a shootout — so something similar would be ideal.

2) Special teams:

The Coyotes have been held to zero power-play goals in their last two losses; they were a combined 0-6 in those two games.

In their last two wins, though, they scored six times on the man advantage — and in games in which they score two or more power-play goals over the last two seasons, they are 13-1-1. The Sharks, meanwhile, are a top five power play team and notched a power-play and a shorthanded goal in their last game against the Coyotes. Whoever wins the special teams battle will probably take home the win, as well.

3) Keep the Sharks to the outside:

The Coyotes must do a better job of not allowing opponents to get shots in from good scoring areas. Against the Ottawa Senators, three of the five Ottawa goals came from right in front of the crease — and most of the Senators’ shots came from the slot.

Devan Dubnyk, however, has shown that he does a much better job at stopping those high percentage shots than Mike Smith all season long — and will need to continue that on Tuesday against the Sharks.

Prediction:

Coyotes 2

Sharks 4

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