The San Jose Sharks completed up the preseason schedule on Saturday evening in opposition to the Utah Mammoth in Salt Lake Metropolis, and for the primary interval, it appeared like they actually didn’t wish to be there.
The Sharks allowed 4 objectives on seven pictures within the first interval and trailed by three earlier than Tyler Toffoli, Barclay Goodrow, and Will Smith all scored within the second interval, with Smith’s energy play purpose tying the sport on the 13:39 mark.
The Sharks, although, couldn’t decelerate the Mammoth within the third interval, permitting objectives to Clayton Keller and Brandon Tanev in a 6-4 loss on the Delta Heart.
The Sharks have been outshot 11-3 within the third interval, and beginning goalie Yaroslav Askarov stopped 17 of 23 pictures.
The Sharks dressed principally an NHL-caliber lineup of their ultimate tune-up earlier than the beginning of the common season on Thursday at residence in opposition to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Saturday’s lineup included middle Macklin Celebrini, who made his preseason debut after he was unable to play within the Sharks’ first 5 exhibition video games as he recovered from an undisclosed ailment that he sustained firstly of coaching camp.
“I wanted to be with the team the whole time, and for whatever reason, it got taken off course,” Celebrini mentioned Saturday morning in San Jose. “But now I’m back and excited to play.”
Celebrini, who led the Sharks with 63 factors in 70 video games final season, began Saturday’s recreation on a line with Will Smith and Philipp Kurashev. Celebrini and Smith have been on the identical line for a number of video games final 12 months and lined up with Kurashev throughout a latest observe.
The Sharks signed the versatile Kurashev to a one-year, $1.2 million contract on July 1 after he had 130 factors in 317 video games over 5 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky mentioned he was going to watch Celebrini’s ice time as he performed his first recreation since Might, when he was with Staff Canada on the IIHF World Championship in Europe. Up till Wednesday of this week, Celebrini had been held out of contact drills.
Celebrini had three hits and received seven of 17 faceoffs in 20:52 of ice time.
“We have a pretty good plan of where we want him to finish at, and we’ll see,” Warsofsky mentioned. “He’s going to be champing at the bit to probably play 45 minutes, but that will not happen.”
The Sharks should scale back their roster to 23 gamers by Monday at 2 p.m. (PT), and one of many greater questions basic supervisor Mike Grier and the Sharks have is whether or not to maintain Michael Misa and fellow prime prospect defenseman Sam Dickinson for not less than the primary a part of the NHL season.
In the event that they do, extra gamers will seemingly must go on waivers, with forwards Pavol Regenda, Egor Afanasyev, and Carl Grundstrom, in addition to defenseman Jack Thompson, being among the many potentialities.
NHL groups have 24 hours to say anybody positioned on waivers. If that participant will not be claimed, they are often assigned to the membership’s AHL affiliate.
For the beginning of the season, if a number of groups submit a waiver declare for a participant, the workforce that completed decrease within the NHL standings the earlier season wins the declare.
“We’ll play it out,” Warsofsky mentioned. “We’ve still got a couple more days here to make these decisions. (Grier and I) have talked in depth about a lot of our guys and where we see the roster shaping up, and we’ll continue to work on it. You never want to lose players, but that is the nature of the business.”
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