San Jose hungry for some good news
What Bob Boughner has been patiently waiting for arrived Tuesday.
That home-friendly Sharks schedule isn’t wrapped with a nice holiday bow, though. It comes with baggage that San Jose’s head coach does not need.
San Jose skated into Tuesday night’s game with Calgary — the first of seven straight at SAP Center — with goalie James Reimer unavailable, promising winger Rudolfs Balcers out longer than expected with an injury and disappointing forward Kevin Labanc a healthy scratch.
“We all know how important this homestand is, and it’s not going to be any easier especially with the three teams we’re facing this week,” said Boughner, whose team won the first three games of its five-game road trip but lost the last two.
Central-leading Minnesota arrives Thursday and streaking Dallas (seven straight wins) is here Saturday before the load lightens with four games over 12 nights.
“I think it’s a great week for us to challenge ourselves and get back to our details,” Boughner said, “because that’s the only way we’re going to have success this week against these teams.”
It could prove interesting for a goal-challenged offense and the last line of defense now missing its top puckstopper.
Limited to two or fewer goals in 14 of their first 25 games, the Sharks were without Labanc on Tuesday and will be without Balcers for at least a week. Boughner termed Balcers’ lower-body injury, sustained Friday against the Rangers, as week-to-week while making no bones about Labanc’s status.
“If I had to label one thing, it’s consistency in his game,” Boughner said. “We want to play with a certain identity and everybody’s got to be on that same page.”
Scoreless in six games, Labanc has produced only two of his season’s six points at even strength, and has 33 shots on goal in 19 games. In the league’s COVID-19 protocol last month for five games and suspended for another, Labanc has slid from a scoring line to the bottom six, and now into the press box.
“I don’t blame his linemates; you have to take accountability for your own game,” Boughner said. “It’s time to be better and find your ‘A’ game.”
Labanc, 25, is the team’s fourth-highest-paid forward, earning $4.725 million with two years left on a four-year, $18.9-million contract.
Balcers, 24, has two goals and 10 points to rank sixth in scoring among Sharks forwards. He has played mostly on Tomas Hertl’s second line, which now features speedy Noah Gregor in Balcers’ place. Reimer, 33, boasts an 8-4-1 record with a 2.11 goalsagainst average and .934 save percentage.
Relegated to backup status for the final two games of the recent road trip, Reimer was still feeling under the weather Tuesday. That necessitated the promotion of Alexei Melnichuk from the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL, and a nod for Adin Hill to start his season-high fourth straight game.
“It’s rest-based, he’s run down and not 100%,” said Boughner, who hopes Reimer will be available Thursday. It’s “more of a maintenance thing for his body.”
Forward Andrew Cogliano is confident the team can handle the adversity.
“Our schedule has been tough,” he said. “Playing every other day, long road trips. It’s been a grind, it is a grind, but it’s not the grind, yet. It gives us a good idea of what it will be when it’s Game 50 and down the line.”