Preview/Lines #46: Smith Possibility for Friday, What Are Caps Best At?

WASHINGTON, D.C. —Will Smith’s return seems imminent?

San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky reported on Thursday morning that Smith, who suffered an upper-body injury on Dec. 13, had a good full-contact practice yesterday.

Could Smith play his first game in a month on Friday against the Detroit Red Wings?

“We’ll make a decision [tomorrow] morning,” Warsofsky said.

Warsofsky also shared positive updates on defensemen Shakir Mukhamadullin and Vincent Desharnais, calling them possibilities for tomorrow, too.

How will San Jose, which has a full 23-man roster right now, fit in all these returnees?

A couple likely moves? Ty Dellandrea is still on the active roster, but he’s out through the Olympics, so he’s going on IR soon. Pavol Regenda may have been an emergency recall, when he was recalled on Dec. 30 — the Sharks had 11 healthy forwards at the time of his recall — so he might be able to shuttle back to the Barracuda without waivers. Those appear to be the two most obvious roster maneuvers for the Sharks.

Of course, that’s two roster moves for three returnees. We’ll see if GM Mike Grier has anything else up his sleeve.

San Jose Sharks (23-19-3)

Alex Nedeljkovic will start.

Warsofsky says lines should look like they did in Wednesday’s practice, so expect:

Graf-Celebrini-Chernyshov
Eklund-Wennberg-Toffoli
Regenda-Misa-Gaudette
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Reaves

Orlov-Klingberg
Ferraro-Liljegren
Dickinson-Iorio

Nedeljkovic

Here’s how they practiced on the power play:

Klingberg-Celebrini-Eklund-Toffoli-Wennberg
Orlov-Misa-Chernyshov-Gaudette-Regenda

Washington Capitals (24-17-6)

Logan Thompson will start.

Tom Wilson remains out, Jakob Chychrun returns on the blue line, the latest on Justin Sourdif and Pierre-Luc Dubois and more lineup notes in today's THN notebook:https://t.co/LFYZOJBW3w

— Sammi Silber 🏒 (@sammisilber) January 15, 2026

Warsofsky offered great insight into how to stop the Capitals.

“They’re one of the best teams in the offensive zone, getting to the inside…They’re getting off walls [quick]… They’re really gonna find sticks in the dangerous ice,” he said. “So we got to make sure we get into people early.”

Warosfsky outlined the Sharks’ gameplan in three defensive steps.

“I think if we can box out early, want them boxing out, and if we get beat to the net, we need to front,” Warsofsky said. “And then third part of that is, if they do have positioning on you, we need to get underneath sticks. That’s something that’s been an area of difficulty for us, and that’s really something we’ve emphasized it a lot in the last few weeks. But more importantly, more than ever, tonight.”

Where To Watch

Puck drop between the San Jose Sharks and Washington Capitals is at 4 PM PT at Capital One Arena. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.