San Jose and Pittsburgh meet with slim standings margins and one win apiece in their last five.
The Sharks enter Wednesday with 17 points and an 8-11-1 record, while Pittsburgh has 14 points at 6-10-2; the Penguins hold the higher power-index spot, 27th to San Jose’s 29th. Each team is 1-4 in its last five, though San Jose snapped its skid with a 3-2 win over the Islanders and Pittsburgh is coming off a 5-2 loss to Anaheim. Macklin Celebrini leads the Sharks with 16 points in 16 games, while Erik Karlsson has 14 points in 14 games for Pittsburgh, setting up a test of San Jose’s top scorer against the Penguins’ most productive defenseman. Goaltending could swing it: Yaroslav Askarov owns a .896 save percentage for San Jose, compared with Arturs Silovs’ .877 for Pittsburgh.