Walman Shares Non-Hockey Reason for His Scratch: ‘A nothing story’

NEWARK, N.J. — Jake Walman wanted to clear the air.

Yes, he was scratched from the San Jose Sharks’ Nov. 5 game for non-hockey reasons (he missed an off-day treatment session because of a misunderstanding). Yes, he missed the Nov. 7 game because of an upper-body injury suffered in his last appearance on Nov. 2.

That’s all, nothing more.

The top San Jose Sharks defenseman, their offensive leader with nine points in 13 games, spoke exclusively with San Jose Hockey Now after practice on Saturday.

Sheng Peng: What’s been going on with the games you’ve missed recently?

Jake Walman: I missed a treatment session for my upper-body injury on our day off, our treatment day, and it’s a team policy that you got to be in there if you’re dealing with an injury. Just from my end, I misunderstood our treatment plan. That was the reason for the scratch. It’s our team rule to be held accountable for something like that. If you have an injury, you got to be in there taking care of it. That’s what happened.

It was coach’s decision after that. Obviously, I respect the decision. I would expect that guys are in there, trying to fix their injuries as soon as possible. I just misunderstood that on our treatment day there. That’s what that was. I acknowledge it, own up to it. I think it was a good decision from coach to hold me accountable and won’t happen again. We’ll move on from it.

People kind of blow stuff out of the water. Took a life of its own a little bit. But that’s what it was, I missed a treatment session for my upper-body injury. And then the next game after that, [the injury got] a little bit worse.

SP: Are you playing tomorrow?

JW: I’m hopeful for it. I had a full practice today, obviously feel it, probably something I’ll deal with for a little bit. Like I said to you before, I’m a competitor, I want to play. So that’s gonna be my thing. I’m gonna say I’m ready.

I told them I could play through it.

SP: Why didn’t you and the San Jose Sharks just give that reason from the beginning, for why you were scratched on Nov. 5?

JW: I think the only reason why we said it now is because it took a life of its own. That’s the only reason. Get it out of people’s minds, it’s just literally not even a nothing story. It was a therapy session that I owned up to and something that I was dealing with upper-body.

I think there’s a lot a lot of secrecy in injuries and stuff within the team nowadays. So the less you say, the better. But I guess people need something to talk about, so that’s what took a life of its own, and now it’s water under the bridge.