San Jose Sharks vs Tampa Bay Lightning

The Tampa Bay Lightning return home from a 5 game roadtrip to take on Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday January 20th, 2026 at 6:00 pm.

The Tampa Bay Lightning enter this game after 4-1 victory over the Dallas Stars yesterday afternoon. The San Jose Sharks enter this game on a back to back playing the Florida Panthers Monday January 19th, 2026 in Sunrise. The Lightning are 30-13-4 on the season and currently sit in 1st place of the Atlantic Division . The San Jose Sharks are 24-20-3 on the season and sit in 4th place of the Pacific Division.

The Lightning defeated the Sharks 7-3 in their previous meeting at the beginning of the new year on January 3rd,2026. However, going into this game the Lightning will continue to be without :

• Brayden Point (lower body)

• Victor Hedman (upper body)

• Ryan Mcdonagh (undisclosed).

The Sharks will be without the following players:

• Ty Dellandrea (lower body)

• Philipp Kurashev (upper body)

• Recently acquired Kiefer Sherwood (visa issues).

The San Jose Sharks are a young team that’s on the rise with good young talent which are currently exceeding expectations.

Superstar Macklin Celebrini who’s only in his 2nd season in the NHL is currently 3rd in scoring with 72 points on the year. He’s the guy who receives the attention from the fans, but there is other talent on this team that makes them so fun to watch. The Sharks have a great core for their future in Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Yaroslav Askarov, Michael Misa, Sam Dickinson, and William Eklund.

The San Jose Sharks core via NHL on X formerly Twitter

The San Jose Sharks have recently made a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on Monday afternoon acquiring Kiefer Sherwood in exchange for 2 future second round picks.

I really like this trade for the Sharks, as it shows that they’re going for the playoffs in what was supposed to be a down year going into this season. Kiefer Sherwood as a player is a pain in the behind to play against who hits everything that moves and also has a scoring touch with 17 goals on the season.

Kiefer Sherwood profile via realapp

The goalie matchups for Tuesdays game look to be Andrei Vasilevskiy for the Lightning and Yaroslav Askarov for the Sharks. Andrei Vasilevskiy is 20-7 with a .916 save percentage and a 2.22 goals against average heading into this game. Yaroslav Askarov carries a record of 16-12 a .891 save percentage and 3.52 goals against average heading into Tuesdays contest.