The Canucks would be wise to get a jump on the Sharks tonight. San Jose is 0-7 on the road this season and 0-10 when surrendering the game’s first goal. San Jose has been outscored 29-4 as the road team and no Shark has more than two points on the road.

The Sharks are 3-13-1 on the season, but 3-3 in their last six games after a horrendous 0-10-1 start. They are coming off a 5-1 win over St. Louis on Thursday which was easily the team’s largest offensive output of the season.

Fabian Zetterlund and Luke Kunin each have 4 goals to lead the Sharks while Tomas Hertl is the team’s top point producer with 3+8=11 making him San Jose’s only scorer in double-digits. The Sharks are the lowest scoring team in the league by a considerable margin with only 17 goals at five on five in their 17 games. However eight of their goals have come in the team’s last two games.

At the other end of the rink, Mario Ferraro on the ice for a league-high 25 even-strength goals against. And the Sharks have just 1+12=13 from their blueline this season. That stands in stark contrast to the Canucks who have a pair of blueliners — Hughes (28) and Hronek (18) — with more points than that on their own.

The Canucks chased starter Kaapo Kahkonen after six goals in that November 2nd drubbing at SAP Center. Mackenzie Blackwood came on in relief that night and will get the nod in net tonight. Blackwood is 2-8-1 on the season with a 4.02 GAA and a .898 save percentage.

These teams will meet again in San Jose on Saturday night.

Tonight’s referees: Steve Kozari & Garrett Rank

What we heard

Rick Tocchet, who had some pointed comments for Andrei Kuzmenko after Saturday’s loss to Seattle, on what he wants to see from Kuzmenko and his line with Elias Pettersson and Ilya Mikheyev: “Well, I think that line has to push the pace. I don’t like the word slow, but they’re trying to play too methodical. They have parts of their game where you’re like ‘Wow’ but they have to push the pace. You can’t slow the game down. It’s not even the guy with the puck, sometimes it’s the guy without the puck. You can demand the puck by playing fast. If the guy doesn’t give it to you, then go offside. That’s how you can sometimes make the guy give you the puck. I think Petey can do that with those guys a little more. I think Petey sometimes is trying to feed off them and I think sometimes Petey just has to go. They just have to play faster.”

Tocchet on what he wants to see from Mark Friedman getting back in the lineup: “There were a couple of games Frieds was getting in trouble with certain situations where he’s just got to read the game a little more. It’s okay to reset. I think he’s going to be good tonight. He’s had some good practices.”

Conor Garland on having a defined role: “I think that’s probably what’s best about this year just having a role and knowing what your job is on the team. I try to create energy for the team by being in the offensive zone for long periods of time and tire some team’s D out. It’s worked so far, but we have a long way to go.”