Sharks provide updates on Donskoi, Vlasic’s health

SAN JOSE — Joonas Donskoi skated for a full hour at the Sharks optional practice Monday, giving head coach Pete DeBoer reason to believe that the scorching-hot forward might be healthy enough to suit up for Tuesday’s clash with the Pittsburgh Penguins at SAP Center.

Donskoi missed the last two periods of Saturday’s 4-1 win over the Ottawa Senators with an apparent head injury after a net-front collision with Mark Borowiecki forced him to leave the game in the opening frame. He returned for one shift at the end of the period before he sat out the last 40 minutes of action.

“I feel pretty good. Nothing too serious,” Donskoi said. “There’s a good chance I’m in tomorrow.”

DeBoer is also hopeful that Donskoi will be able to suit up Tuesday night. The Sharks are waiting to see how Donskoi reacts to the physical exertion of Monday’s practice.

“We’ll see how he feels, but it is a good sign,” the Sharks coach said. “This is one of the steps in coming back. Whether he’ll be available tomorrow night, I don’t know yet.”

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Still, Donskoi’s participation in practice is good news. After spending the first three months of the season juggling his lines, DeBoer settled into some combinations following the Christmas break that have fueled the Sharks season-best six-game winning streak. The last thing he wants to do is go back to the drawing board when the team is rolling.

Donskoi is a key piece of the Sharks new alignment, skating on a line with Tomas Hertl and Evander Kane, a trio that’s tilted the ice every night, combining for 28 points in seven games before the injury. The Finnish forward is leading the charge, scoring eight goals in seven games after he got bumped down to the fourth line on Dec. 27 for producing just 6 points in his previous 17 games.

The Sharks will need Donskoi to perform like the 2016 version of himself if they’re going to make a run at the Stanley Cup this spring. Donskoi’s been plagued by injuries throughout the last two seasons, missing a combined 37 games, and he’s trending in the right direction.

“That was my main goal coming into the season, staying healthy,” Donskoi said. “It’s always stressful and scary when you have to leave the game, but it looks pretty good now.”

— Marc-Edouard Vlasic also skated at practice Monday. He continues to be labeled as “day-to-day” with an apparent wrist injury that’s sidelined him for five straight games.

Despite the team’s defensive success without Vlasic, who’s posted a team-worst minus-13 rating this season, DeBoer is planning to throw the former-Olympian back into a shutdown role when he returns.

The Sharks coach is currently giving those responsibilities to Erik Karlsson, who’s averaging 27:44 of ice time in Vlasic’s absence. With Karlsson tackling shutdown duties, the Sharks have surrendered fewer goals (eight) than they have during any other five-game span this season.

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The injury is providing DeBoer with an opportunity to change how he deploys his blue line without bruising egos. But DeBoer is planning throw Vlasic right back into the fire against the NHL’s top-scoring forwards once he’s healthy. It’ll be interesting to see whether the Sharks coach flirts with the idea of reforming the Vlasic-Karlsson pairing that he disbanded after just nine games when the shutdown blue liner is ready to go.

“He’s going to come in and he’s going to play big minutes. He’s going to get responsibility right off the bat — he’s that player,” DeBoer said. “He’ll jump right back into a real-important role for us.”

— The Sharks will get to see just how far they’ve come since the 2016 Stanley Cup Final when the Penguins roll into SAP Center Tuesday.

The Sharks got humbled by the Penguins speed and offensive firepower when they met up in the final three years ago. Now, DeBoer believes that his squad is right up there with the top-scoring teams in the league after transforming into a speedier puck-moving group with the additions of Erik Karlsson, Evander Kane, Timo Meier, Marcus Sorensen and Kevin Labanc.

DeBoer’s team currently ranks fifth in scoring (3.55 goals per game), just behind the Penguins, who average 3.56 goals per game. The Sharks are leading the NHL in that category since Dec. 2, netting a whopping 4.25 goals per game over the last six weeks.

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Sharks reach agreement with depth centerman on two-year deal “We can score more easily than we have in my entire time here,” DeBoer explained. “It’s hard to win 2-1, 1-0 every night. We’ve been challenged, offensively, when I look back (at it). It hasn’t come easily. We’ve been able to defend well and win a lot of one-goal games.

“When I look at that final, there’s no doubt Pittsburgh was a much better offensive team than we were. It doesn’t mean you can’t beat an offensive team, but it definitely makes it easier (when you can score).”

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