Sharks shoot for payback in Nashville

Hockey Betting Lines

11/17/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Few teams have had success versus the Sharks this season, but the Predators are one of them. The only team to beat them in San Jose, Nashville will try for its second straight win over the Sharks when it hosts them tonight at the Sommet Center.

Nashville returns home tonight for the first time since November 1 after wrapping a six-game road trip on Sunday in Los Angeles. The Predators lost the first three tests of the swing before rebounding to win the final three games of the swing.

That includes a 4-3 overtime victory in San Jose, a win that ended the Sharks' season-opening nine-game home winning streak. San Jose has still yet to lose in regulation as the host (10-0-1) but is just 5-3-0 on the road.

Dan Ellis made a franchise-record 54 saves in that overtime win against the Sharks, and made another 33 stops in Saturday's 3-1 victory over the Kings.

J.P. Dumont's power-play goal with 2:28 left in the game was the winner, while Shea Weber was credited with an empty-net goal with 47.7 seconds to go after Los Angeles' Dustin Brown put the disc into his own net trying to complete a pass to the point. Jason Arnott also scored, while both he and Dumont added assists.

Dumont (2 goals, 2 assists), Arnott (2g, 2a) and Weber (1g, 3a) all have four points over Nashville's current three-game winning streak. Dumont has a point in 14 of his 17 games played this year and leads the Preds with 20 points (4g, 16a) this season.

Nashville, which has won its last three at home and is 5-1-0 at the Sommet Center this year, will honor head coach Barry Trotz prior to tonight's game after he coached in his 750th career game back on November 4. He is the 31st coach in league history to hit that mark.

The Sharks' OT setback to the Preds is one of the few hiccups the club has endured as of late. Sunday's 6-5 win over Chicago marked the team's second straight six-goal game and improved them to 9-1-1 over their last 11 games.

San Jose, which has won two in a row, got a pair of goals from Dan Boyle versus the Blackhawks as well as the deciding tally out of Dan Setoguchi, his team-high 10th goal of the season.

Setoguchi has three goals and three assists over his last three games and uncorked 10 of San Jose's club-record setting 57 shots on net last Tuesday versus Nashville.

In Sunday's win, Joe Thornton added a goal and assist, while Joe Pavelski had three helpers. Thornton has posted two goals and four assists over his last three games, with Pavelski posting those exact numbers over his last two.

Brian Boucher made 28 saves in his fifth straight start since Evgeni Nabokov suffered a lower-body injury. Boucher is 3-1-1 with a 2.78 goals against average since Nabokov's injury and has started back-to-back games once this season.

Should the Sharks decide to rest the 31-year-old netminder tonight, however, Thomas Greiss could make his season debut in net.

San Jose won all four its game versus Nashville last year and has won two in a row at the Sommet Center after losing seven straight as the visitor in the series.