John Klingberg<\/a>\u2019s first healthy scratch this season, on Tuesday against the Utah Mammoth.<\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s a risk-and-reward type of defenseman, a lot of teams have those types of players, but you have to get the reward. And we really haven\u2019t got a lot of that,\u201d Warsofsky said.<\/p>\n
Klingberg, who\u2019s dealt with persistent hip issues over the last five years, got the message.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit different with all of the history of injuries and getting older too, so you have to adapt a little bit,\u201d he said. \u201cBut yeah, just simplify the game and let the game come to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sharks weren\u2019t getting the reward on the power play either, once Klingberg\u2019s bread and butter.<\/p>\n
And if anything, Klingberg is honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe power play was good when I was out. Worked with [Dmitry] Orlov,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m a team guy, if the power play works, go ahead and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Warsofsky is going to give Klingberg, who has shown flashes of great playmaking, a chance to reclaim his job as top power play quarterback. Historically, Klingberg is a PP1 quarterback and Orlov is more PP2, so hopefully, a better all-around 5-on-5 game will pave the way for the Swedish blueliner to find his footing on the man advantage too.<\/p>\n
Either way, Klingberg is clearly open-minded about adjusting his game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take big pride in being in the line-up, and I can find different roles, in a second [power play] unit, or even try to play PK or whatever,\u201d Klingberg, who reached the Stanley Cup Final last year, said. \u201cI had success in Edmonton as well and was able to stay in that line-up throughout the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klingberg still skates well and can move a puck, so the tools are there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s never easy to sit out, but it gives you some time to think and take a step back and then just reevaluate your own game,\u201d he said. \u201cI sometimes feel like I have to put a leash on myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
San Jose Sharks (9-8-3)<\/p>\n
Yaroslav Askarov will start.<\/p>\n
Timothy Liljegren and John Klingberg will replace Shakir Mukhamadullin and Nick Leddy in the line-up:<\/p>\n
Kurashev-Celebrini-Smith
Eklund-Wennberg-Toffoli
Gaudette-Dellandrea-Graf
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Reaves<\/p>\n
Orlov-Liljegren
Ferraro-Klingberg
Dickinson-Desharnais<\/p>\n
Klingberg is also back on the top power play unit:<\/p>\n
PP1: Klingberg-Celebrini-Eklund-Smith-Wennberg
PP2: Orlov-Liljegren-Kurashev-Toffoli-Gaudette<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Kings (10-6-4)<\/p>\n
Anton Forsberg will start.<\/p>\n
According to Zach Dooley, here\u2019s how the Kings should line up:<\/p>\n
Fiala \u2013 Byfield \u2013 Kempe
Moore \u2013 Kopitar \u2013 Kuzmenko
Foegele \u2013 Danault \u2013 Laferriere
Armia \u2013 Turcotte \u2013 Perry<\/p>\n
Anderson \u2013 Dumoulin
Edmundson \u2013 Clarke
Moverare \u2013 Ceci<\/p>\n
Where To Watch<\/p>\n
Puck drop between the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings is at 7 PM PT at SAP Center. Watch it live on ESPN+ and Hulu. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Klingberg is going to try to force the action less. That\u2019s an adjustment for the 33-year-old defensemen,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[50472,79518,831,6521,22618,393,385,2124,4276,835,99,6535],"class_list":{"0":"post-304762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-2025-26","9":"tag-anze-kopitar","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-john-klingberg","12":"tag-lines","13":"tag-los-angeles-kings","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-preview","16":"tag-ryan-warsofsky","17":"tag-san-jose-sharks","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-tyler-toffoli"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}