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Sharks look to continue dominance at home

Nov 11, 2008 - 2:23 PM Nashville (6-7-1) at San Jose (13-3-0), 10:30 pm EDT

SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- The San Jose Sharks have shown some vulnerability on the road. Unfortunately for the Nashville Predators, their Western Conference rival has been nothing short of spectacular at HP Pavilion.

Armed with a perfect record at home, the Sharks hope to bounce back from a loss that snapped their seven-game win streak when they host the Predators on Tuesday.

The Sharks are 9-0-0 in San Jose, matching the league's third-best home win streak to open a season, and is the first team to win its first nine home games since the 1971-72 Chicago Blackhawks.

No team has opened with 10 consecutive home wins since the 1963-64 Blackhawks started a league-record 11-0-0 on home ice. The 1925-26 Ottawa Senators are the only other team to win its first 10 home games.

San Jose dropped a 4-2 decision to the Phoenix Coyotes in the desert and fell to 4-3-0 on the road. It was the first time this season the Sharks didn't get the victory in the second half of back-to-back games.

Once again, the Sharks may be without right wing Jonathan Cheechoo, who is day-to-day after an upper-body injury that kept him out during the weekend.

It is unknown whether goaltender Evgeni Nabokov will return to the ice after sustaining an injury that has kept him out of two games. The Vezina Trophy runner-up appeared to injure himself while making the final save of a 5-4 shootout win over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

Brian Boucher is 1-1-0 and has yielded five goals in two games in Nabokov's absence. Prior to that stretch, the 31-year-old recorded shutouts in each of his previous two contests this season.

Meanwhile, the Predators suffered a 1-0 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday - their third in a row - and fell to 1-6-1 away from Gaylord Entertainment Center.

It was the second shutout loss on this season-high, six-game road trip for Nashville, which also fell 4-0 to Vancouver on Tuesday. In the one game in which the Predators did score, they gave up their highest goal total of the season, losing 7-6 to the Calgary Flames on Thursday.