Sheng Peng
John Klingberg will miss the Saturday matinee against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The San Jose Sharks’ leading offensive defenseman by far — Klingberg’s nine goals is sixth among NHL rearguards and more than the entire output (six goals) of the rest of his team’s blueline — he will be replaced by Timothy Liljegren, who will be returning from an upper-body injury.
Klingberg suffered this lower-body injury, considered day-to-day, during the 4-3 New Year’s Eve shootout win over the Minnesota Wild.
San Jose Sharks (20-17-3)
Yaroslav Askarov will start.
This is how the Sharks practiced on Friday, and how lines are expected to look today:
#SJSharks lines today, no Klingberg/Gaudette, Liljegren & Desharnais practicing:
Eklund-Celebrini-Chernyshov
Graf-Wennberg-Toffoli
Regenda-Dellandrea-Skinner
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-ReavesFerraro-Mukhamadullin
Orlov-Liljegren
Dickinson-Iorio
Leddy-Desharnais— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 2, 2026
#SJSharks power play groups at practice sans Klingberg…
PP1: Orlov-Celebrini-Eklund-Toffoli-Wennberg
PP2: Liljegren-Skinner-Graf-Chernyshov-Regenda— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 2, 2026
Tampa Bay Lightning (24-13-3)
Andrei Vasilevskiy will start.
Taking the ice in San Jose ⤵️#GoBolts | #TBLvsSJS pic.twitter.com/wpdQCsNwkd
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) January 3, 2026
Jon Cooper has fun with the Celebrini Effect, taking a straw poll of all the reporters waiting for him today & where they’re from.
He joked later, after a couple Lightning questions from @JSB_TV: “Alright, let’s go with the Celebrini questions.” pic.twitter.com/Qq8MWrrn8I
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 3, 2026
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, who will also helm Team Canada, spoke on Macklin Celebrini being on the team:
Where To Watch
Puck drop between the San Jose Sharks and Tampa Bay Lightning is at 1 PM PT at SAP Center. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.