Coyotes at Sharks preview

COYOTES (15-18-2) at SHARKS (19-12-6)
8 p.m. ET; NBCSCA, FS-A PLUS, NHL.TV

After winning a season-high five straight, the Sharks lost 5-3 to the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday and 3-2 in overtime to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
The Sharks will be without defenseman Erik Karlsson, who was suspended two games for an illegal check to the head of Kings forward Austin Wagner at 2:33 of the second period. Karlsson, a two-time Norris Trophy winner, has an eight-game point streak (zero goals, 10 assists).
Arizona ended a three-game losing streak with a 6-4 victory against the Colorado Avalanche at Gila River Arena.
The Coyotes are 2-7-0 in their past nine games and had scored a combined six goals in their previous four games before matching that total against Colorado.

Players to watch

Coyotes forward Brad Richardson scored two goals against Colorado and leads Arizona with 10 goals.
Sharks center Joe Pavelski has a three-game goal streak and a team-high 23 goals for the season, one more than he scored last season.

They said it

"I've been trying to shoot the puck more, and I've definitely been working on my game. So I think you do that and hopefully the good things come and they have so far."-- Coyotes forward Brad Richardson
"I knew he was going to have a good season because he was healthy. He wasn't healthy last year. I knew he was going to have a good year this year, I didn't know what that number would be, but nothing with him surprises me." -- Sharks coach Peter DeBoer on forward Joe Pavelski

Coyotes projected lineup

Richard Panik -- Derek Stepan -- Clayton Keller
Alex Galchenyuk -- Nick Schmaltz -- Christian Fischer
Nick Cousins -- Brad Richardson -- Josh Archibald
Lawson Crouse -- Mario Kempe -- Conor Garland
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Jakob Chychrun -- Alex Goligoski
Jordan Oesterle -- Ilya Lyubushkin
Darcy Kuemper
Adin Hill
Scratched:Calvin Pickard, Kevin Connauton, Michael Bunting
Injured: Christian Dvorak (upper body), Jason Demers (lower body), Antti Raanta (lower body), Michael Grabner (upper body), Vinnie Hinostroza (lower body)

Sharks projected lineup

Evander Kane -- Joe Pavelski -- Joonas Donskoi
Tomas Hertl -- Logan Couture -- Timo Meier
Marcus Sorensen -- Joe Thornton -- Kevin Labanc
Lukas Radil -- Barclay Goodrow -- Melker Karlsson
Radim Simek -- Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Justin Braun
Joakim Ryan -- Brenden Dillon
Aaron Dell
Martin Jones
Scratched:Tim Heed, Rourke Chartier
Injured: None
Suspended: Erik Karlsson

Status report

Neither team had a morning skate. … Erik Karlsson will be replaced by either Ryan or Heed. Ryan has four assists in 25 games. Heed has no points in two games.

Stat pack

Stepan has four points (two goals, two assists) in his past five games. … Thornton needs one assist to pass Marcel Dionne (1,040) for sole possession of 10th place on the NHL's all-time assists list.