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San Jose Sharks

Preview/Lines #53: White To Make Sharks Debut? Rutta Injury More Serious?

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Credit: Dean Tait/Sport Shots

The San Jose Sharks didn’t change much at practice after getting overwhelmed 7-2 on Saturday by the Florida Panthers.



Defenseman prospect Jack Thompson was back, in place of Jan Rutta, who was placed on IR.

According to head coach Ryan Warsofsky, Rutta has a lower-body injury that might be worse than day-to-day. They’ll know more tomorrow.

Here’s how the San Jose Sharks lined up at practice on Sunday, it looks like Colin White should make his Sharks debut on Monday against the Pittsburgh Penguins:

Zetterlund-Granlund-Smith-Grundstrom
Eklund-Celebrini-Toffoli
Kovalenko-Wennberg-Kunin
Goodrow-White-Duehr-Sabourin

White will give the fourth line, which has struggled since Nico Sturm’s injury, a regular center. Goodrow moonlighted there on Saturday.

Carl Grundstrom and Scott Sabourin look like the odd men out.

INDTVUSA spotted Vlasic skating with the Grundstrom and Sabourin on Monday morning, so Vlasic is probably sitting.

It looked like a fairly-standard Sharks practice on Sunday, though there were one-on-one battle drills in the end, which left Timothy Liljegren with a high stick to the face from White. Liljegren was okay.

There was also an emphasis on breaking out the puck with speed and purpose, a problem against the Panthers.

One notable change: The Sharks will not have a morning skate on Monday, before a 7:30 PM PT showdown with Pittsburgh. That’s unusual in a not back-to-back situation.

We had three fights in four seconds against the Nashville Predators on Thursday. They pulled starter Alexandar Georgiev in the second period on Saturday.

Is this another move to try to shake the Sharks out of their doldrums?

San Jose Sharks (14-32-6)

Yaroslav Askarov will start, and lines should look like this:

Zetterlund-Granlund-Smith
Eklund-Celebrini-Toffoli
Kovalenko-Wennberg-Kunin
Goodrow-White-Duehr

Walman-Ceci
Ferraro-Liljegren
Thrun-Thompson

Askarov

Pittsburgh Penguins (20-23-8)

Check out Pittsburgh Hockey Now for all your Pittsburgh Penguins updates and lines!

Where To Watch

Puck drop between the San Jose Sharks and Pittsburgh Penguins is 7:30 PM PT on Monday at SAP Center. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.

 

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