NHL Game Preview: Tampa Bay Lightning at San Jose Sharks with Line Combinations 1/2/2025

Tampa Bay Lightning (20-12-2, 42 Pts) at San Jose Sharks (11-23-6, 28 pts)

Venue: SAP Center
Date: Thursday, January 2
Time: 10:30 ET
TV: ESPN+/FDSNSUN/ NBCSCA
Radio:
Tampa Bay – 102.5 The Bone
San Jose – Sharks Audio Network

DraftKings Sportsbook Betting Lines:

Tampa Bay -1.5 ML -270
San Jose: +1.5 ML +220
O/U 6.5

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Tampa Bay Lightning News & Notes:

The Lightning are coming off a 5-2 loss to the Canadiens on Sunday which snapped their two game winning streak. They finished December going 8-3-0 averaging 4.4 goals per game and allowing an average of 2.2 goals per game.

San Jose Sharks News & Notes:

The Sharks dropped their eighth straight game on Tuesday taking a 4-0 loss to the Flyers. They finished December going 2-10-1.

Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines

Guentzel-Point-Kucherov
Hagel-Cirelli-Geekie
Goncalves-Paul-Chaffee
Girgensons-Glendening-Eyssimont
Hedman-Raddysh
McDonagh-Cernak
Lilleberg-Perbix

Vasilevskiy
Johansson

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Tampa Bay Hockey – Inside The Rink

San Jose Sharks Projected Lines:

Kostin-Granlund-Kunin
Zetterlund-Celebrini-Smith
Kovalenko-Wennberg-Toffoli
Goodrow-Sturm-Dellandrea
Thrun-Ceci
Ferraro-Liljegren
Mukhamadullini-Rutta

Askarov
Georgiev

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Players To Watch:

Tampa Bay Lightning

Brayden Point this season has 43 points on 23 goals and 20 assists. He’s faced the Sharks 14 times in his career recording 19 points on six goals and 13 assists; he had four assists in the game against the Sharks earlier this season.

San Jose Sharks

Alex Wennberg this season has 18 points on eight goals and ten assists. He’s faced the Lightning 28 times in his career recording 14 points on eight goals and six assists; he had a goal in the previous matchup this season.

Injury Report:

Tampa Bay Lightning

D J.J. Moser – IR

San Jose Sharks

D Marc-Edouard Vlasic – IR
C Logan Couture – LTIR
G Vitek Vanecek – IR
F William Eklund – IR
F Carl Grundstrom – DTD
D Jake Walman – DTD

Next Game:

Tampa Bay – January 4 @ Los Angeles Kings
San Jose – January 4 vs. New Jersey Devils

ITR 31: Let Them Fight – Inside The Rink

Join Conrad and Chris to discuss WHL expansion, Thatcher Demko returning from IR, Gabe Viladri out week-to-week, Gabriel Landeskog a full practice participant, and the NHL referees stopping a goalie fight. Join in on all this and MUCH more!

1. ITR 31: Let Them Fight 01:03:52
2. ITR 30: Down The Stretch 59:42
3. ITR 29: Trade Deadline Review 01:02:40
4. ITR 28: Deadline Week 44:07
5. ITR 27: Trade Season Begins 01:07:33