Sharks get new opponent for home opener — again

The San Jose Sharks will play the Vegas Golden Knights, not the Anaheim Ducks, for their first game this season at SAP Center later this month.

The NHL on Monday announced schedule changes to four Sharks games, with the first being that San Jose will host Vegas and head coach Pete DeBoer for its home opener on Feb. 13 at 1 p.m. PT. That game was originally supposed to be played Monday in Glendale, Arizona as the first of a two-game series, but the Golden Knights experienced a host of issues with COVID-19 last week and the series was postponed. Vegas’ game with the St. Louis Blues last Thursday was also postponed.

Due to the NHL’s COVID protocol, the Golden Knights had three coaches and two players in isolation, but Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon said Monday the team has now had “four days of all negative tests” and that the expectation is that they will resume practice Wednesday.

The Sharks’ Feb. 13 game with Vegas will mark DeBoer and assistant Steve Spott’s first time back at the Shark Tank since they were fired by general manager Doug Wilson on Dec. 11, 2019. DeBoer was hired by the Golden Knights five weeks later, and Spott came onto DeBoer’s staff by the end of January 2020.

The second game of that Sharks’ series with Vegas will now be played in San Jose on Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. PT.

The Sharks’ originally scheduled game vs. Anaheim on Feb. 13 will now be played on April 6 and will kick off a homestand at SAP Center that also includes two games against Los Angeles on April 9 and 10 and the Ducks again April 12 and 14. The Sharks will still play Anaheim on Feb. 15.