The San Jose Sharks may finally be getting some reinforcements back ahead of tomorrow night’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Sharks have been without five key pieces for the better part of a week, but it appears Paul Martin, Ben Smith and Joonas Donskoi are all primed to return in short order.
According to Kevin Kurz of Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area, the trio was all available at the Sharks practice today.
As further evidence the three should be available for tomorrow’s matchup, San Jose reassigned forward Micheal Haley back to the San Jose Barracuda where he will likely suit up in their game tonight against the San Diego Gulls. Haley appeared in last night’s loss to the Los Angeles Kings, but he’s the leading scorer for the Barracuda with four goals and six points.
For San Jose, this is a great sign as the Sharks have hit the skids recently, dropping three straight games by a wide margin. After allowing just two goals in their first four victories, San Jose has allowed 14 goals in their three defeats, while scoring just four goals.
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The biggest boost should be the return of Martin who should help alleviate some of the defensive concerns that have re-appeared in the Sharks game. San Jose has been victimized by the odd-man rush, which directly led to two goals against the Kings last night. While the Sharks should be better defensively regardless of whether Martin is in the lineup or not, there’s no denying this is a more confident defense when he’s on the blue line.
Up front, the return of Donskoi and Smith will add to the forward depth for San Jose. Peter DeBoer wants to play an attacking, pressure-style of hockey and they couldn’t do that effectively with the amount of injuries they sustained. Donskoi meshed nicely on the first line with Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski, and putting him back up top will help balance out the rest of the Sharks’ lines. Also, it was big for Thornton to be back out at practice after taking a nasty fall last night.
Smith will likely slide into the fourth-line center role, allowing DeBoer to roll over his four lines like they did so effectively in their four victories.
It can’t be stated enough how important it is for the Sharks to get some healthy bodies back as they look to turn their play around. San Jose is not in panic mode just yet, but after their struggles last season, they need to get off to a good start this year and it starts with ending this losing streak.
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