Center Tomas Hertl makes his first visit to the SAP Center since being traded last season when the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights visit the San Jose Sharks on Friday.
Hertl was the 17th overall pick of the 2012 NHL Draft by San Jose and in 11 seasons collected 218 goals and 484 points — the sixth-most in franchise history. San Jose dealt him to the Golden Knights ahead of the trade deadline in March. A video tribute will be played to commemorate his return.
“I’m excited for it,” said Hertl, 31. “I can’t really tell how the feeling (will be) right now. We are going to be on other side in the visiting team (locker room).
“We had some great runs. I played there a long time, but I still want to take the two points from there and have a good game. … I really don’t know what to expect because I haven’t been in this situation before in my life.”
Hertl has 10 goals, including a team-high seven on the power play, and 24 points for Vegas. He scored the team’s go-ahead goal and had an assist in the team’s last game before the holiday break, a 3-1 home victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Monday.
The Golden Knights went into the break with an NHL-best .721 points percentage thanks in part to an 8-1-0 mark in December. The team brings a four-game winning streak with it to San Jose and is 25-2-5 all-time in the regular season against the Sharks, including 12-0-3 in San Jose.
The Golden Knights are 19-3-2 against Western Conference teams and 11-2-1 against Pacific Division rivals.
“Right now in the (Western Conference) I certainly feel we’re going as well as anybody, and that’s a credit to the guys,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said.
San Jose is last the Pacific with 28 points, 21 fewer than the Golden Knights, and has lost five in a row since winning 4-3 at St. Louis on Dec. 12. Four of those losses were by one goal, including an overtime loss at defending Western Conference champion Edmonton, 3-2 last Saturday.
The Sharks are coming off a 4-3 loss at Vancouver on Monday, when they surrendered three goals in the span of 70 seconds late in the second period to fall behind 4-1.
“Today was four or five minutes, and we lose a hockey game because of it,” San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky said Monday. “So, it’s frustrating. I feel for the guys because I thought we had a good effort tonight. We competed, we pushed back, but we have to learn from it and move on. … We got to find some mental toughness to push through and stick together and do things and clamp it down and keep it simple.”
San Jose’s six-game homestand begins with a back-to-back against the Golden Knights and Calgary Flames. The Sharks are 6-9-1 at home this season but will be facing a Vegas team that is 9-5-3 on the road.
This is the second of three meetings between the two teams. Vegas won the first one 7-3 on Oct. 26 in Las Vegas behind one goal and two assists apiece from Mark Stone and Pavel Dorofeyev.
–Field Level Media
