Game 6: The Sharks, one of the West's best

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After a much-needed win against the woeful Carolina Hurricanes, the San Jose Sharks –one of the Western Conference’s best– is coming to town for an afternoon showdown with the New York Rangers. The Sharks are 4-0-1 to start the season, riding hot goaltending and absurd scoring (20 goals so far). The Sharks, particularly Tomas Hertl, gained fame last year among Rangers fans by deking Martin Biron into retirement. That won’t happen today (he can’t retire again), but the Rangers need to avoid that same kind of embarrassment, preferably with a big W.

On the ice, coach Todd McLellan has his Sharks mostly running an aggressive 2-1-2 forecheck, but will mix in some 1-2-2 depending on game situation. In the defensive zone schemes they overload the boards and play zone defense when the puck is at the points or down low. The power play is a 1-3-1 and their penalty kill formations are hybrid (depends on puck location/opposition setup).

Rangers lineup:

Mats Zuccarello–Derick Brassard–Martin St. Louis
Chris Kreider–Kevin Hayes–Rick Nash
Carl Hagelin–Dominic Moore–Lee Stempniak
Tanner Glass–Chris Mueller–Ryan Malone