The San Jose Sharks and the Minnesota Wild meet in NHL action from the Xcel Energy Center on Friday night.
The San Jose Sharks will look to build off of a 2-1 win over St. Louis in a shootout last time out. Tomas Hertl leads the Sharks with 6 points including team-highs of 3 goals and 3 assists while Evander Kane and Logan Couture each have 4 points with Kane logging a goal and 3 assists with a team-high 15 shots on goal while Couture has 2 goals and 2 assists. Brent Burns and Timo Meier each have a goal and a pair of assists for their three points this season. Martin Jones has seen the bulk of the work in goal for San Jose, posting a 2-1 record with a 3.08 GAA, allowing 9 goals on 84 shots against so far this season.
The Minnesota Wild will try to add to their 3-1 mark on the year after a 3-2 win over Anaheim last time out. Kirill Kaprizov leads the Wild in points with 5, including a team-high 4 assists while Joel Eriksson Ek, Ryan Suter, Matt Dumba and Joel Greenway each have 3 points with Eriksson Ek and Dumba each logging two goals and Eriksson Ek just edging out Dumba for the team-high with 14 shots on goal to Dumba’s 13. Suter and Greenway each have 3 assists this season. Cam Talbot’s got the bulk of the work in goal for Minnesota, posting a 2-1 record with 7 goals against on 94 shots this season.
San Jose is 2-6 in their last 8 games overall and 2-7 in their last 9 road games while the under is 7-0 in their last 7 Friday games. Minnesota is 2-6 in their last 8 home games and 7-1 in their last 8 Friday games while the under is 9-4-3 in their last 16 games as a home favorite. The Sharks are 5-1 ATS in the last 6 meetings between these two teams.
These two teams have played in close games pretty much all year up to this point, with 7 of their combined eight games being decided by one goal. With that said, if the line creeps up you could make a case for San Jose +1.5, but at this price, I’m leaning towards San Jose and the plus money. I think this line should be closer to a -135 or -140 for Minnesota, and San Jose hasn’t been terrible this season while the Wild did go 3-1 but it was against the two worst teams in the West in Anaheim and L.A. Give me the Sharks and the plus money here.