San Jose trails the first-place Anaheim Ducks by four points and the Los Angeles Kings by three in the Pacific. The Sharks have five games remaining, and the Ducks and Kings each have six.
"We still got some games left so a lot of things can happen, a lot of strange things can happen," Sharks center Joe Thornton said. "We're going to try and win every game and see what happens at the end of the year."
Forward Joel Ward will return to the lineup after missing one game with an undisclosed minor injury.
"It was good to get a couple days [off] for sure," Ward said. "I feel more refreshed, I guess you can say. I had a couple of bumps here and there. Pretty much maintenance stuff. Nothing out of the ordinary."
The Sharks defeated the Canucks 4-1 at Rogers Arena on Tuesday, extending Vancouver's losing streak to nine games. The Canucks, however, have won five straight games in San Jose.
Canucks second-line forward Jake Virtanen will serve the first game of a two-game suspension for a late hit early in the second period on Sharks defenseman Roman Polak. Linden Vey, who missed the game Tuesday with an upper-body injury, will return to the lineup.
"It was a bit of a late hit," Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said. "You can't do that. He has to learn from it. We don't want him to change his game. We want him to play hard. He's got to keep playing hard. He's just got to be smart."
Polak left the ice briefly after Virtanen's hit but returned to finish the game and will be in the lineup Thursday.
"He just knocked the wind out of me," Polak said. "I just couldn't breathe. That's why I was just kind of laying there, taking my time, tried to breathe a little bit again. It's always good if you're breathing."
Canucks defenseman Chris Tanev returns after missing six games with an upper-body injury. He was paired with Ben Hutton during Vancouver's morning skate at SAP Center.
"It's nice to be back," Tanev said. "It's no fun watching. I've had some good skates and good practices, so I feel like I'm in good shape, but we'll see tonight."
Here are the projected lineups:
CANUCKS
Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Jannik Hansen
Sven Baertschi - Markus Granlund - Linden Vey
Chris Higgins - Bo Horvat - Alexandre Burrows
Jared McCann - Brendan Gaunce - Emerson Etem
Dan Hamhuis - Yannick Weber
Ben Hutton - Christopher Tanev
Matt Bartkowski - Alex Biega
Ryan Miller
Jacob Markstrom
Injured: Nikita Tryamkin (ankle), Derek Dorsett (upper body), Radim Vrbata (lower body), Luca Sbisa (upper body), Brandon Sutter (broken jaw), Alexander Edler (fractured tibia)
Scratched: Andrey Pedan
Suspended: Jake Virtanen
SHARKS
Tomas Hertl - Joe Thornton - Joe Pavelski
Joonas Donskoi - Logan Couture - Joel Ward
Melker Karlsson - Patrick Marleau - Tommy Wingels
Nick Spaling - Chris Tierney - Dainius Zubrus
Paul Martin - Brent Burns
Dylan DeMelo - Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon - Roman Polak
Martin Jones
James Reimer
Injured: Marc-Edouard Vlasic (lower body), Matt Nieto (broken knuckle), Matt Tennyson (head)
Scratched: Micheal Haley
Status report: Tryamkin (ankle) missed the game Tuesday but skated Thursday. Desjardins said there's a chance he could return to the lineup. ... Haley was one of the last Sharks off the ice and will likely be a healthy scratch. ... Jones was the Sharks' first goalie off the ice and is expected to start for the third time in the past four games. ... Miller, who backed up Markstrom on Tuesday, will start for the Canucks. ... Vlasic will miss his eighth straight game and has yet to skate since he was injured, but he will travel with the Sharks on their upcoming two-game road trip that begins Saturday at the Nashville Predators. "He's going to travel with us, which is good news," Sharks assistant coach Steve Spott said. "He'll be able to be around our (medical) people on this road trip."
Who's hot:Couture had his first NHL career hat trick against Tuesday. ... Pavelski has a four-game point streak (2-4-6). ... Burns has points in four straight games with one goal and five assists.
