Healthy or not, Sharks get ready for huge test vs. Lightning
SAN JOSE — Marc-Edouard Vlasic came off the ice after a brief skate and sounded optimistic that he’d be healthy enough to play tonight when the San Jose Sharks host the NHL’s best team in the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“Things are looking good,” Vlasic said Friday.
For a Sharks team hoping to show it belongs among the league’s elite, they’d better be.
Vlasic and fellow injured defensemen Radim Simek and Justin Braun are all questionable to play Saturday as the Sharks begin a three-game homestand against the Lightning, which is on a ridiculous 15-0-1 tear, having not lost in regulation time since Nov. 27 against Anaheim.
Tampa Bay (32-7-2) has an NHL-best 66 points and own far and away the league’s best offense with 174 goals in 41 games. Calgary, entering Friday, was in second place with 150 goals in 42 games.
Winger Nikita Kucherov, the league’s top point producer with 69, has eight goals and 19 assists in the 12-game point streak he’ll carry into Saturday. Two other players, Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos, are inside the top 20 in the league with 54 and 46 points, respectively.
The Lightning also have the NHL’s top power play at 30.5 percent (43-for-141).
In other words, it’s another chance for the Sharks (22-13-7) to demonstrate that they belong in the Stanley Cup contender conversation, especially after losses in the last five weeks to Toronto, Vegas, Winnipeg and Calgary.
And Tampa Bay’s better than all of them.
“It’s the best team,” we’ve faced, Sharks center Logan Couture said. “They’re far and away ahead of everyone else in the league right now, pointswise. They’ve got some guys up front that are putting up some outrageous numbers.
“It’ll be a big test, but it still is a game in January.”
Simek, recovering from a concussion he suffered Dec. 31 in Calgary after a hit from Flames forward Sam Bennett, also skated Friday as the Sharks went through an optional practice.
Vlasic, injured in Wednesday’s game against Colorado, skated in a track suit and Braun, who suffered a lower body injury against the Avalanche, stayed off the ice.
Vlasic fell over Barclay Goodrow midway through the third period Wednesday and took one more shift before he sat out the final six minutes.
“(Goodrow) went to block (a shot),” Vlasic said, “and I just fell over top him and tried to brace myself.”
Colorado features Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog, players who have combined for 167 points through Friday.
Still, the Sharks held Rantanen, MacKinnon and Landeskog to just one point between them, an assist from MacKinnon, in a 5-4 win.
“In Colorado, we played probably against the hottest line in the league,” Vlasic said. “So, that gets us ready for tonight. They have four lines that are very dangerous. Good off the rush. If you turn it over, you’ll pay the price for that.”
Vlasic and Braun usually skate against the opposing team’s top offensive line. But if either of them, or especially both, are unable to play Saturday, that would figure to put more on the shoulders of Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson.
Against the Avalanche, with both Vlasic and Braun missing time, Burns finished with 29 minutes and 13 of ice time and Karlsson had 30:54, a seasonhigh.
“I this business, I think everybody’s used to people in and out of the lineup,” Karlsson said. “Our approach does not change no matter who is out or in. We’re going to try and do our best to go about our business as usual, but obviously those are huge pieces of our team.”