Sheng Peng
Welcome to day 5 of San Jose Sharks’ training camp!
There were a couple intriguing changes to the camp groups:
And indeed, John Leonard did skate with Evander Kane and Tomas Hertl today, replacing Ryan Donato on that line:
Radim Simek himself supplied the news today, revealing that he may not be quite 100 percent. He’s still participating in training camp — he was paired with Brinson Pasichnuk today — but his knee (again) is clearly an issue that’s weighing him down, at least mentally.
“I’m trying to do my best,” Simek said of his camp so far, “but sometimes, it’s so hard for me.”
Also, the NHL revealed its start times today. Here are a couple key San Jose Sharks start times:
Besides Simek, we also spoke with Bob Boughner, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Kevin Labanc, and Marcus Sorensen.
Simek on Roller Coaster
An innocent question about Radim Simek’s overall recovery from major knee surgery in March 2019 and minor knee surgery in December 2019 — he didn’t look quite right last season, even though he managed to suit up for 48 games — took a darker-than-expected turn.
“Good question,” Simek said. “I was fighting during the summer with the knee again, I don’t know why. I don’t know what happened.”
He added: “I did nothing wrong and my knee started to hurt again.”
Simek reported that he started feeling pain again “after a couple skates in the Czech Republic [in May or June].” The good news is, he didn’t have to undergo another surgery. The bad news? He’s feels good right now, but isn’t 100 percent sure that he’ll be ready for opening night.
“I’m trying to do my best,” he said of training camp, “but sometimes it’s so hard for me.”
This might explain why Boughner offered Mario Ferraro as a top-four solution yesterday. And Simek, after skating with regular partner Brent Burns early on, was paired with Pasichnuk today.
“I’m still working on my knee,” Simek offered. “Hopefully, I’m going to be ready for the start of the season.”
And hopefully, Simek doesn’t endure an up-and-down season like last year. He certainly doesn’t want a repeat.
“I started in November and felt pretty good. After a couple games, my knee was hurt again. I had another surgery,” Simek shared. “It was like a roller coaster.”
Boughner Not as Concerned About Simek
Boughner, however, wasn’t as concerned about Simek.
Reached via e-mail — the San Jose Sharks head coach was in meetings today — he had this to say:
Boughner, on if he’s concerned about Simek missing opening night:
Not concerned at all, we’ve had a heavy workload the last four days on the ice and everyone is dealing with some muscle soreness of some kind as we get back. Nothing nagging.
Boughner, on if team is comfortable with defensive depth:
I don’t think any team would like to miss a veteran on D but I don’t think that is going to be the case here. No matter what happens we should have at least seven D on opening night that we’re comfortable with and can all play.
Boughner, on immediate plan for Simek:
Like any player we will keep an eye on him and monitor how everyone feels each day. The plan is for him to be in practice tomorrow then we have an off day the following day for everyone to get some rest.
Boughner, on Ferraro-Burns becoming a pair going forward:
We want to take a look at it for sure but I think we will be doing a lot of interchanging of partners in the next few days. Nothing is set in stone for sure but us as coaches will be using the next week as a little bit of an experiment to see how different things look.