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 47: Then There Was Nothing – Inside The Rink

Join Conrad and Chris as the discuss Gavin McKenna making the jump to the NCAA, Pittsburgh and San Jose making additions, and the NHL season to begin on October 7, 2025.

1. ITR 47: Then There Was Nothing 32:56
2. ITR 46: Offseason Chaos 24:53
3. ITR 45: Everything Is Happening 37:46
4. ITR 44: We Have A Champion…Again 56:17
5. ITR 43: It's Winning Time 39:10