Preview/Lines #41: Klingberg Out This Afternoon, Cooper Talks Celebrini

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-Reaves

Ferraro-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.