The Rangers beat Nashville on Saturday, and it seemed to be a weight lifted off their backs. They are 2-5-2 to date, and in range of the magic number of three. But they are still in dire need of points, and you get the sense they know it. The win over Nashville may not have had the best process, but when you get two points and are in dire need of a confidence boost, you take it.

Now with San Jose coming to town, the Blueshirts will need to build on that win over Nashville. Perhaps the process starts coming together. Perhaps they start getting some bounces. Perhaps both. No matter what, the Rangers dug themselves a hole, and need to continue digging themselves out of it.

Sharks Systems

Pete DeBoer is has the Sharks playing a 1-2-2 forecheck which they would use aggressively in the offensive zone or passively in the neutral zone as a trap depending on game situation. In the defensive zone, Deboer uses a hybrid overload/zone defensive system depending on whether the puck is along the boards or at mid-ice. On special teams, the DeBoer goes with an umbrella/1-3-1 power play and a  box/diamond penalty kill.

For more on these systems, check out our Hockey Systems page.

Sharks Lines

Kevin Labanc-Joe Thornton-Joe Pavelski
Tomas Hertl-Logan Couture-Melker Karlsson
Timo Meier-Chris Tierney-Mikkel Boedker
Jannik Hansen-Ryan Carpenter-Joonas Donskoi

Joakim Ryan-Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic-Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon-Tim Heed

PP1: Couture-Thornton-Pavelski-Heed-Burns
PP2: Boedker-Lebanc-Boedker-Hertl-Vlasic

Martin Jones gets the start.

Rangers Lines

Rick Nash–Mika Zibanejad–Mats Zuccarello
Chris Kreider–David Desharnais–JT Miller
Jimmy Vesey–Kevin Hayes–Jesper Fast
Michael Grabner-Pavel Buchnevich

Ryan McDonagh-Brendan Smith
Marc Staal–Kevin Shattenkirk
Brady Skjei–Nick Holden
Tony DeAngelo

PP1: Zibanejad-Kreider-Buchnevich-Zuccarello-Shattenkirk
PP2: Nash-Desharnais-Miller-Vesey-McDonagh

Henrik Lundqvist gets the start.

Scratches/Injuries: Paul Carey (healthy), Steven Kampfer (healthy), Adam Cracknell (healthy)

Crazy Prediction: A win where everyone is happy. That seems to be a rarity these days.

Game time is 7pm. Be sure to follow on Twitter for gifs, and on our Snapchat for in-game.

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