SAN JOSE — The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2015 by giving the majority of their blue line minutes to just four defenseman in the playoffs, providing a model that could be useful to the Sharks this spring.

Pete DeBoer cut Joakim Ryan’s audition as the Sharks sixth-playoff defenseman down to just 3:18 in Game 1 of his team’s opening-round series with the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday, choosing to lean heavily on his top-five blue liners instead of rolling the dice with a rear guard who’s been wildly inconsistent since he rejoined the lineup in the aftermath of Radim Simek’s injury on March 12.

The Sharks bench boss called Ryan’s absence from the final 28:46 of Game 1 a “coaching decision.”

“We’d like to play six,” DeBoer said. “We’re going to go in with the mindset every day (that) we’re trying to play six. Whoever is in there, whether it’s Joakim or Tim Heed or Jacob Middleton, those guys get an opportunity and they’ll decide whether we can play them three minutes, eight minutes, 10 minutes.”

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Ryan struggled so much down the stretch, DeBoer gave Middleton a look in two games during the last week of the season just to see what he had in the rookie defenseman who’d suited up for just one NHL game prior to April 2. At the end of the day, he decided to give Ryan the Game 1 start over Middleton and right-hander Tim Heed to keep a lefty-righty balance on the blue line.

At this point, DeBoer isn’t revealing whether he’ll turn to Heed in Game 2 on Thursday, skating him on his off-side.

But if the Sharks can’t find a reliable sixth defenseman, DeBoer is confident that his top five of Brent Burns, Erik Karlsson, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Brenden Dillon and Justin Braun can eat up the extra minutes “easily.”

“We have guys back there that can take heavier minutes,” the Sharks coach said. “We’re not the only team built like that. I look at Nashville, they’re No. 5 and No. 6 defensemen are playing 10 to 12 minutes a night. It’s not a big number. I don’t think that’s an issue.”

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Karlsson skated for 26:25 in his second game back from a groin injury that sidelined him for 17 of the Sharks last 18 regular season games on Wednesday, recording his first multi-point game since Jan. 8 with a pair of primary assists. DeBoer is confident that Karlsson can handle 25-plus minutes a night, especially when the Sharks will be playing a one day on, one day off schedule in the playoffs.

“He said he’d let us know if there was a fatigue issue,” DeBoer said. “The way the games are laid out, it’s actually easier than the regular season. You’re not playing back to backs, you’re not playing three in fours. We’ve got nice breaks in between games. I don’t think that’s an issue.”

2. The Tomas Hertl scare ended up being just that, a scare.

Hertl sounded off alarm bells in Sharks territory on Wednesday when he skipped the team’s morning skate after appearing to suffer a left-hand ailment in practice the previous day.

Hertl, who hurt his hand in practice yesterday, is not out for Sharks morning skate. We’ll see what DeBoer says. — Nick Cotsonika (@cotsonika) April 10, 2019

If Hertl’s hand is nagging him, it didn’t show up on the ice in Game 1. Hertl won 10 of his 21 faceoffs, executing at a higher clip than he did during the regular season (47.6 percent). The Czech forward also handled the puck well throughout the game, producing a team-best possession rating of 66.67 percent in 20:30 of ice time. He finished the game with a goal, an assist, three shots, eight attempts and a plus-3 rating.

Talk about filling up the scoresheet.

This is particularly good news considering that the Sharks power game down low is probably their biggest strength in a matchup with Vegas.

“I’m alright,” Hertl said. “I felt pretty good during the game. No issue at all.

“I play a lot of minutes, so Pete gave me some rest (on Wednesday morning). I don’t mind taking it.”

3. This just in: Marc-André Fleury is fallible after all.

Over the course of the Golden Knights first two years of existence, Fleury has served as the Sharks personal kryptonite, posting a .936 save percentage in 10 appearances against Team Teal. In Game 1, the Sharks found a solution to Fleury’s Rubix’s cube, scoring four goals on 32 shots.

“We were on him around the blue paint, where he can’t see (the) puck,” Hertl said. “We’ve been just all over him. He sometimes gets frustrated, sometimes he gets mad.

“That’s what we have to do — frustrate him. We can score on him, for sure. We have to stay there (in front) every game now because he will be better and better every night.”

At this point, it’s unclear whether the Sharks strategy of getting in Fleury’s face worked. He might still be dealing with a lower-body injury that sidelined him for nine games down the stretch or he could be rusty after missing three weeks of action.

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Home sweet home? Giants, visitors at Oracle Park, tie franchise record in win Prior to suffering his injury in mid-March, Fleury surrendered just four goals in five starts, pitching two shutouts and posting a .972 save percentage. He looked poised to carry the Golden Knights on another deep run the playoffs. Since his return, he’s coughed up 12 goals in three starts (.885).

Whether it’s injury, rust or simply an anomaly, the leak in Fleury’s dam could be the equalizer that negates the concerns surrounding the Sharks goaltending in the series.