With life on road extended, team seeks help for players
Now knowing they’ll have to stay away from San Jose for longer than they had first hoped, some Sharks players have been busy trying to find out what it will mean for them to be the home team in another city.
Sharks coach Bob Boughner said Sunday before the Sharks beat the Wild 5-3 that players have been reaching out to the NHL and the NHLPA to find out more information after the team announced their Feb. 1 and Feb. 3 home games with the Vegas Golden Knights would not be played in San Jose because of Santa Clara County’s ongoing ban on contact sports.
The Sharks’ next opportunity to play in San Jose will be Feb. 13 against the Anaheim Ducks. By that point, the team’s players and coaches will have been away from home for six weeks, or more in some cases.
Boughner said the Sharks have been trying to come up with a plan based on what things will look like in the coming days and weeks.
Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, said in an email to this news organization that the league is “in the process of working through these issues with the NHLPA and with the club.”
“Trying to figure out what that looks like from a standpoint of taking care of players and providing the proper environment for them,” Boughner said, “essentially being a home team not playing at home.”
The NHL’s Transition Rules say that if a club has to temporarily relocate for all or part of this season, players will be given separate hotel accommodations in the new city for the duration that “he is with the team during the temporary relocation, including family-appropriate accommodation if his family accompanies the player.”
The rules also state that a player and/or his accompanying family members will be allowed to keep their accommodations while the team is traveling on the road.
Other small perks include being paid a per diem meal allowance as long as the club is temporarily relocated. Players are also provided with, or reimbursed for, the cost of a rental car if needed.
The Sharks, though, are unclear as to how long they might have to call Arizona home — just for early February, or for more home games later in the month. After their games with Vegas, the Sharks travel to Southern California from Feb. 5-11 to play two games against both the Ducks and Los Angeles Kings.
The Bay Area’s regional stay-at-home order, under California directives, will remain in place as long as ICU bed availability is under 15 percent. As of Saturday, the state of California’s four-week projection for ICU bed capacity remained below that threshold. Professional or collegiate contact sports in Santa Clara County are not allowed while the shelter order is in place.
Sharks general manager Doug Wilson addressed the players Saturday before the team officially made its announcement.
“It is what it is. We’re all on the road here for a while, all of us want to get back to San Jose and play in our home city,” Sharks forward Marcus Sorensen said. “(We) kind of expected that, too. We’ll see what happens when we go forward. But it’s an opportunity for us to stay together and hang out with each other.”
Sorensen’s family is back in his home country of Sweden.
“At least I have my boys here, so we have a lot of fun and we’ll practice and work hard together,” he said. “When it gets to time to think about your family, like late nights or before you go to bed, obviously you miss them. During the day, I’m trying to not think about it that much.”
“You’ve just got to be ready for change,” Sharks forward Kevin Labanc said. “I think all the guys know that we’re just going to have to make sure we get ready and always be prepared for whatever situation comes out of it. I think we’re all ready and we just got to stay mentally prepared.”
LINEUP CHANGES >> Boughner made some lineup changes for Sunday’s game. He moved Timo Meier from the second line to the third line for the start of the game and inserted Noah Gregor in place of Stefan Noesen. Meier and Gregor were the wingers on the third line centered by Dylan Gambrell.
John Leonard was reunited with Tomas Hertl and Evander Kane. The top line of Logan Couture, Ryan Donato and Labanc remained the same.