Golden Knights at Sharks preview

GOLDEN KNIGHTS (42-30-6) at SHARKS (43-25-9)
9 p.m. ET; ESPN+, NBCSCA+, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV

The Sharks trail the Calgary Flames by eight points in the Pacific Division and lead the Golden Knights by five points. San Jose would finish no worse than second in the division with a win in any fashion against Vegas.
Vegas has lost four straight games but clinched a berth in the playoffs Friday, despite a 3-2 to the Minnesota Wild at T-Mobile Arena. The Golden Knights clinched when the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 in a shootout.

Players to watch

Golden Knights forward Reilly Smith has 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his past seven games.
Sharks forward Tomas Hertl has five points (three goals, two assists) in his past four games.

They said it

"Both teams are struggling right now so I think they're going to try to get their game in shape for the playoffs, and we're going to do the same thing."-- Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant
"We worked awfully hard for six, seven months to put ourselves in a spot where we have a chance over the next week to have home ice in the first round. We've got to work to get that done." -- Sharks coach Peter DeBoer

Golden Knights projected lineup

Jonathan Marchessault -- William Karlsson -- Reilly Smith
Max Pacioretty -- Paul Stastny -- Mark Stone
Tomas Nosek -- Cody Eakin -- Alex Tuch
William Carrier -- Ryan Carpenter -- Ryan Reaves
Nate Schmidt -- Deryk Engelland
Brayden McNabb -- Shea Theodore
Jon Merrill -- Colin Miller
Malcolm Subban
Maxime Lagace
Scratched: Valentin Zykov, Nick Holden
Injured:Erik Haula (lower body), Marc-Andre Fleury (lower body), Brandon Pirri (lower body), Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (undisclosed)

Sharks projected lineup

Timo Meier -- Logan Couture -- Gustav Nyquist
Evander Kane -- Tomas Hertl -- Joonas Donskoi
Marcus Sorensen -- Joe Thornton -- Kevin Labanc
Micheal Haley -- Dylan Gambrell -- Barclay Goodrow
Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon -- Justin Braun
Joakim Ryan -- Tim Heed
Martin Jones
Aaron Dell
Scratched:Melker Karlsson, Lukas Radil, Jacob Middleton
Injured: Erik Karlsson (groin), Radim Simek (right knee), Joe Pavelski (lower body)

Status report

Neither team had a morning skate. … Fleury is expected to miss his eighth straight game. … Pavelski will miss his sixth straight game.

Stat pack

Marchessault and William Karlsson each has nine points (four goals, five assists) in his past seven games. … Vegas has not lost more than four straight games in its history; they lost four straight from Jan. 21-Feb. 2 and to the Washington Capitals in the Stanley Cup Final last season (May 30-June 7). … The Sharks haven't lost more than seven straight games since a 10-game losing streak from Nov. 5-30, 2005 (0-7-3). … Thornton is two assists from tying Steve Yzerman (1,063) for eighth place on the NHL's all-time list.