After last season’s performance from the San Jose Sharks, no one was expecting much different this year even with their crop of new young players.
Macklin Celebrini, last year’s first overall pick, and the Sharks have proved everyone wrong, posting a record above .500 and sitting in the final wild card spot as the Christmas break approaches. Celebrini has led the way, ranking third in the league in points with 51 in only 34 games.
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Dallas Stars left wing Jason Robertson (21) and San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini (71) look for the puck during the game at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Now, Dallas comes to San Jose fresh off a 4-1 win over Los Angeles, who the Sharks are tied with in the standings. Dallas needed the win to end a short two-game losing streak to the Minnesota Wild and Florida Panthers. Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist to lead the Stars to the win in Dallas.
The Stars trip to California is short-lived, with San Jose Thursday night and Anaheim on the second part of their back-to-back on Friday before turning right around for a home game against Toronto on Sunday. With the Olympic break fast approaching in February, the games are getting sandwiched in with little time for rest in between. The two day break Dallas had this week is the first time the team has rested more than a day between games since the week before Thanksgiving.
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In fact, the first meeting between Dallas and San Jose at the American Airlines Center featured two teams that looked pretty tired, and the first two periods were sloppy and slow. Dallas scored three goals in the third to pull away for a 4-1 win on Dec. 5.
San Jose is coming off of a fun 6-3 win over the bottom-feeding Calgary Flames, and Celebrini scored one of the goals of the season so far for the Sharks fourth goal of the game. His two goals and two assists made him the fastest player to ever hit 50 points in a season for the Sharks franchise. He did it three games faster than Erik Karlsson, Joe Thornton and Owen Nolan, three of the best players to ever play for San Jose.
Dallas will have to keep the wins flowing to keep up with the seemingly unbeatable Colorado Avalanche, and now with the red-hot Minnesota Wild acquiring Quinn Hughes and continuing to fire off wins, there is no room to slide behind them either. The Stars always seem to have the toughest division race, and this year is crazier than ever. The top three of the Central Division are all top-four in the league standings, with only Carolina coming in between Dallas and Minnesota.
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The Stars have played some crazy games at the Shark Tank over the last few years, and with the Sharks exciting team, Thursday might be no different.
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