Kings at Sharks preview

KINGS (12-20-3) at SHARKS (19-12-5)
4 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN1, SNE, SNW, SNP, NHL.TV

Kovalchuk, who signed with the Kings as a free agent July 1, has gone 11 straight games without a point and has five goals and nine assists in 25 games this season.
The Kings are 2-4-2 in their past eight games but are coming off a 4-1 victory against the Winnipeg Jets at Staples Center on Tuesday.
The Sharks are 5-1-0 in their past six games after their season-long five-game winning streak ended with a 5-3 loss to Winnipeg in San Jose on Thursday.
Sharks center Joe Thornton (1,040) needs one assist to pass Marcel Dionne for 10th place on the NHL's all-time list. Gordie Howe ranks ninth with 1,049.

Players to watch

Kings forward Alex Iafallo has six points (two goals, four assists) in a NHL-long five-game point streak.

Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson has eight assists in a seven-game assist streak.

They said it

"He's hungry to get back in. He was good at the start of the year. He was producing, and we need him to produce. We need some offense to our game." -- Kings coach Willie Desjardins on Ilya Kovalchuk
"We wanted to see where we stacked up against one of the elite teams in the League. I thought our guys came out and played a good hockey game." -- Sharks coach Peter DeBoer after losing to Winnipeg

Kings projected lineup

Alex Iafallo -- Anze Kopitar -- Dustin Brown
Adrian Kempe -- Jeff Carter -- Tyler Toffoli
Brendan Leipsic -- Nate Thompson -- Ilya Kovalchuk
Austin Wagner -- Michael Amadio -- Matt Luff
Derek Forbort -- Drew Doughty
Jake Muzzin -- Sean Walker
Daniel Brickley -- Oscar Fantenberg
Jonathan Quick
Cal Petersen
Scratched: Paul LaDue, Nikita Scherbak
Injured: Alec Martinez (upper body), Dion Phaneuf (upper body), Carl Hagelin (knee), Trevor Lewis (foot), Jack Campbell (knee), Jonny Brodzinski (shoulder), Kyle Clifford (upper 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
Brenden Dillon -- Erik Karlsson
Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Justin Braun
Martin Jones
Aaron Dell
Scratched: Tim Heed, Joakim Ryan
Injured:None

Status report

Clifford practiced Friday but was not on one of the top four lines.

Stat pack

Kopitar has five points (one goal, four assists) in his past 10 games and is two goals shy of 300 for his NHL career. … Couture has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past four games and 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) in his past 16. … Meier has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in his past nine games but no goals in his past three. … Hertl has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his past six games.