Simek’s absence shifts load to others
Defenseman Radim Simek will not dress for either of San Jose’s next two games but could be available midway though next week when the Sharks play the St. Louis Blues for a second time.
Simek, who has been experiencing discomfort in his right knee, skated at Gila River Arena on Friday afternoon as the Sharks went through an optional practice. Coach Bob Boughner said the Sharks want to allow Simek to continue therapy and give him some more practice time before they dress him for a game.
The Sharks play the Arizona Coyotes again this afternoon and will hold another practice in Glendale, Ariz. on Sunday before they depart for St. Louis. The Sharks play the Blues on Monday and Wednesday.
“So that’s the goal,” Boughner said, “that he would be ready for after Monday.”
In the meantime, Boughner is likely going to rely on the players on his top two defense pairs — particularly Brent Burns, Erik Karlsson and Marc-Edouard Vlasic — to continue to chew up big minutes.
In Thursday’s game, a 4-3 Sharks shootout win, Karlsson was on the ice for a staggering 32 minutes and 12 seconds, most-ever by a Sharks skater in a season-opening game. That included roughly four minutes of the five-minute overtime, which included a Coyotes minor penalty.
Burns played 27:45 and Vlasic played 26:47. Mario Ferraro played just over 21 minutes, and the two Sharks’ rookie defensemen, Nikolai Knyzhov and Nicolas Meloche, combined for under 17 minutes. Meloche, who had 5:43 of ice time, was making his NHL debut.
Boughner said he might look to give Knyzhov and Meloche more ice time today to take a little off the plate of the Sharks’ top three defensemen. Still, without Simek, who typically averages between 15 to 18 minutes per game, Boughner has to rely on
his big horses a little more now than he otherwise would like.
The previous team record for time on ice in an opener was 27:59, set Oct. 8, 2010 by Dan Boyle when the Sharks played Columbus in Stockholm, Sweden. Karlsson was playing in his first game in 11 months.
“That’s too much, too early,” Boughner said “We talked about that as a staff today and we’re going to have to trust some of the younger guys to play in some crucial situations.
“I think last night that 32 minutes is obviously a little inflated with the overtime. But I’d like to get (Karlsson) into the high twenties. Anytime you’re over 30, I think that’s too much. We definitely have to spread some ice time out a little more.” FEELING BETTER >> Meloche, no relation to former California Golden Seals goalie Gilles Meloche, revealed Friday that he tested positive for the coronavirus in October. Oddly enough, he found out about the positive test on the same say he signed a one-year contract extension with the Sharks.
“So it was it positive and negative day,” Meloche said, “but just happy to be here.”
POST-MORTUM >> Boughner said the Sharks have a lot of things to clean up before Saturday. He didn’t like the way the Sharks’ broke out, how they played along the boards as a group or how they handled the Coyotes’ pressure.
“We have to better support the piles, more support on our breakouts,” Boughner said. “We didn’t spend enough time in their end. We were sort of one and done a little bit.”
Sharks goalie Martin Jones had
to make 12 saves on high-danger chances, per naturalstattrick.com. Arizona outshot San Jose 8-0 in the first six minutes of the second period, and 11-0 over the final 5:42 of the third period when it scored two goals.
“We knew they would push, and they did,” Boughner said. “We just didn’t handle the push properly.”
The season opener
SOLID START FOR JONES >> Jones on Thursday looked a lot more like the goalie the Sharks had from 2015 to 2018 than the one that was in net the last two years. He was calm, poised, efficient, and the biggest reason why the Sharks now have two points.
Jones stopped a shot from Derick Brassard on a two-on-none in overtime, extending the game. He also stopped several Arizona point-blank opportunities.
On one hand, it’s obviously concerning — although not totally unexpected — for the Sharks to allow so many quality chances. It was a good sign, though, that Jones can make up for those miscues, when all too often last season those mistakes wound up in the back of the net.
A TOP LINE EMERGES >> The Tomas Hertl, Evander Kane and John Leonard line had a strong training camp together and they kept it going Thursday, combining for six points, including all three Sharks goals in regulation time.
It had to feel good for all three. For Hertl, it was his first game since he tore the ACL and MCL in his left knee in a Jan. 29, 2020 game against the Vancouver Canucks, and he had close to 22 minutes of ice time.