logo
CanucksArmy has no direct affiliation to the Vancouver Canucks, Canucks Sports & Entertainment, NHL, or NHLPA
Canucks Game Day: Looking for back-to-back wins in matinee match vs. Sharks
alt
Photo credit: © Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
Jeff Paterson
Nov 28, 2025, 09:00 ESTUpdated: Nov 28, 2025, 02:38 EST
Comments
The Vancouver Canucks (10-12-2) continue the California portion of their four-game road trip when they face the San Jose Sharks (11-10-3) at SAP Center. It’s a 1 pm PT start on Black Friday.
After a 5-4 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday, the Canucks will be looking for consecutive victories for the first time since October 17th and 19th in Chicago and Washington. That was part of the team’s only three-game win streak of the season.

What we know

Based on Thursday’s practice, the Canucks may be making one switch for today’s game. It appears Lukas Reichel will replace Aatu Räty in the lineup. Max Sasson is likely to move into Räty’s spot between Drew O’Connor and Kiefer Sherwood.
The Canucks got goals from five different scorers on Wednesday. Linus Karlsson, Evander Kane, Conor Garland, Max Sasson and Drew O’Connor found the back of the net. O’Connor’s goal into an empty net gave Vancouver a 5-3 lead, but proved to be the game-winner after Anaheim scored a late goal to pull within one. Tom Willander and Filip Hronek each had a couple of assists. 
Nikita Tolopilo stopped 37 of the 41 shots he saw in his season debut. Tolopilo is now 2-0 in his NHL career. As a team, the Canucks have surrendered a season-high 41 shots in each of their last two road games. With no morning skate, the Canucks have not named a starter for today’s game in San Jose, but it won’t be a surprise if Tolopilo is between the pipes again. The 25-year-old Belarusian made his NHL debut and picked up his first career win against the Sharks last April.
After struggling mightily on the penalty kill for much of the season, the team has successfully killed off 11 of its last 12 shorthanded situations over the past three games. That included going five for six in Anaheim on Wednesday. 
Linus Karlsson has scored in four of his last eight games. All five of Max Sasson’s goals this season have come on the road. Evander Kane’s power play marker to give the Canucks a 2-0 first period lead snapped an eight-game goal drought. Kane has four goals on the season – two of them have come at 5-on-4 and the other two at 6-on-5.
The last two games between the Canucks and Sharks have gone to overtime, and both ended with Vancouver posting 2-1 victories. Drew O’Connor scored on a penalty shot the last time the Canucks were in the Shark Tank. Overall, Vancouver has won five straight head-to-head meetings and an incredible 16 of the last 17.

The Opponent

The Sharks are licking their wounds after being mauled 6-0 in Colorado on Wednesday night. It was the team’s third shutout loss of the season. Yaroslav Askarov got the start and allowed four goals on 19 shots in 24:51 of action before giving way to Alex Nedeljkovic, who gave up a goal on the first shot he faced just nine seconds after the goalie switch. Colorado outshot San Jose 42-26 for its 10th straight win. The Sharks are the last team to beat the Avs when they handed them a 3-2 shootout loss on November 1st.
Macklin Celebrini’s five-game point streak came to an end in Denver. Even though he and his team were blanked, the first overall pick in the 2024 draft had three shots on 11 attempts. Celebrini leads the Sharks and is tied with Connor McDavid for second in league scoring with 34 points. The North Vancouver product has a team-high 14 goals and leads the club with four on the power play. Will Smith is second on the Sharks with seven goals and 21 points.
As a team, the Sharks hold the dubious distinction of registering the fewest shots per game (24.3) and allowing the most shots per game (31.9). They started the season 0-4-2, but are 11-6-1 in their past 18 games. They are a respectable 7-4-3 on home ice.
A year ago on this date, San Jose was 7-13-5, so the Sharks are showing signs of progress. A win today would be their 12th of the season. They didn’t collect their 12th win last season until January 2nd.
The Sharks roster includes a trio of former Canucks: Tyler Toffoli, Adam Gaudette and Vincent Desharnais.
San Jose has one of the lowest-scoring defences in the NHL; however, veteran Dmitri Orlov has 13 of the 40 points from the team’s blueline. He has yet to score a goal this season, so all of his offensive contributions have come via assists. Boston’s Charlie McAvoy is the only player in the league with more points (14) without scoring a goal. 

News and notes

This is the first of four meetings between these teams this season. The Sharks will be in Vancouver on December 27th and again on January 27th. The Canucks will return to the Bay Area on April 11th.
Today is the second matinee the Canucks have played this season. They beat Washington 4-3 in a 12:30 pm local time start in mid-October. They have another 12:30 pm face-off coming up on December 14th at New Jersey.
Don’t forget to join Rink Wide Vancouver for full postgame coverage after this game – and every game. The livestream starts moments after the final buzzer. Rink Wide is the place for full postgame analysis and discussion. Join the live YouTube chat with your thoughts on the hockey game.
Sponsored by bet365

Editorials

Breaking News