The San Jose Sharks are getting healthy, but is it too late?
Igor Chernyshov (concussion), Yaroslav Askarov (lower-body), Vincent Desharnais (upper-body), and Tyler Toffoli (lower-body) all returned to practice on Monday morning.
As of Mar. 22, San Jose is five points behind the Nashville Predators for the last wild card spot in the West. The Sharks do have two games in hand on the Preds.
Here’s how the San Jose Sharks lined up, before they flew out to Music City.
Chernyshov-Celebrini-Smith
Eklund-Wennberg-Graf
Sherwood-Misa-Regenda
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Gaudette
Mukhamadullin-Ferraro
Leddy-Desharnais
Orlov-Klingberg
Sam Dickinson and Philipp Kurashev were the odd men out.
Toffoli appears to be recovering well from his lower-body injury, suffered against the Buffalo Sabres last Thursday. There were initial concerns that he wouldn’t make this upcoming three-game road trip, but head coach Ryan Warsofsky believes that he should join the San Jose Sharks on the road.
Askarov should play on this road trip: The Sharks sent down Laurent Brossoit after practice, indicating Askarov is at least ready to back up Alex Nedeljkovic.
Ty Dellandrea, out since Jan. 6 with a lower-body injury, continued to practice.
Dellandrea will travel and could be an option on this road trip.
The only missing San Jose Sharks player was Ryan Reaves, who suffered a gruesome finger injury on Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Warsofsky called him week-to-week with an upper-body injury, and he didn’t rule out the veteran winger for the rest of the season.
The reeling San Jose Sharks, on a four-game losing streak, are at Nashville on Tuesday, the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, and the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, on what could be the last stand for this season’s surprising playoff run.
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