This is the most important game of the San Jose Sharks’ season.
Of course, the Sharks have been playing, for a franchise that hasn’t seen the playoffs since 2019, pretty much Game Seven after Seven, as Randy Hahn put it, since after the Olympics, trying to keep hold of a Western Conference wild card spot. These aren’t, of course, true Game Sevens, but it’s the closest that San Jose has been in a long time.
The Sharks, because of a game in hand over the Nashville Predators and Los Angeles Kings, have the last playoff spot in the West right now. All three teams have 79 points.
What makes tonight’s match-up against the Preds especially critical is the second playoff tie-breaker, after Points %.
That’s regulation wins, victories outside of overtime and the shootout. Nashville has 25, San Jose 24, and Los Angeles 19.
If the Sharks can beat the Predators in 60 minutes, that would go a long way toward their first playoff berth since Barclay Goodrow’s first stint in teal.
The next tie-breaker, by the way, is regulation and overtime wins, San Jose has 34, Nashville 30, and Los Angeles 26.
Goodrow is the only Shark who played the last time that San Jose beat Nashville, 2-1 in the shootout on Nov. 9, 2019. Mario Ferraro was on the roster, but didn’t dress.
The Sharks are currently on a 14-game losing streak against the Predators.
That includes the last “biggest game of the season” against Nashville, a 6-3 loss at Bridgestone Arena on Mar. 24.
Since then, San Jose has peeled off points in five-straight, including four consecutive wins.
“We’ve been playing really well as a team and not making the mental errors that I feel like we’ve made sometimes throughout the season,” alternate captain Tyler Toffoli said.
That’s what happened in Nashville two weeks ago, when the Sharks fell behind 5-1 in the first period to the Preds.
No matter what happens tonight, credit to San Jose for rallying back when they’ve been down, which they’ve done all season.
“Last year was a shitty year, but to see the turnaround and the growth from every single guy in this locker room, and the guys that have come in to help turn this thing around,” Toffoli said, “we’re having a lot of fun with it, and it’s nice to be back in the mix.”
San Jose Sharks (36-31-7)
Yaroslav Askarov will start.
It’s the same lines as last game, otherwise:
Chernyshov-Celebrini-Smith
Eklund-Wennberg-Sherwood
Graf-Misa-Toffoli
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Gaudette
Orlov-Desharnais
Mukhamadullin-Ferraro
Dickinson-Leddy
Askarov
Same power play groups, too:
PP1: Orlov-Celebrini-Smith-Toffoli-Wennberg
PP2: Dickinson-Misa-Eklund-Chernyshov-Sherwood
Nashville Predators (35-31-9)
Juuse Saros will start, the first time that Askarov will face his ex-teammate in a game.
When the @predators traded Yaroslav Askarov to the @SanJoseSharks in the summer of ’24, they did so in part because they decided Juuse Saros would be their goalie of the future. Tonight, Askarov and Saros go head-to-head for the first time in an NHL game. And the stakes are HUGE!…
— Randy Hahn (@sharkvoice) April 4, 2026
Ozzy Wiesblatt, the 2020 San Jose Sharks’ first-round pick, spoke on his time with Team Teal recently:
Where To Watch
Puck drop between the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators is at 7 PM PT at SAP Center. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.
