Friend of the Blog Kevin Kurz delivered some good news on the injury front today as both Matt Nieto and Marc-Edouard Vlasic will play on Thursday night against the Kings. Vlasic’s status comes as less of a surprise than Nieto’s, though it’s undoubtedly good news to get both players back in the fold.
As for how that affects the Sharks lines, Kurz tweeted this from this morning’s practice.
Looks like Nieto on third line with Marleau and Melker. Tierney, Spaling and Wingels on fourth line. Zubrus odd man out
— Kevin Kurz (@KKurzCSN) April 11, 2016
Most interesting to me is that Zubrus is the odd man out here. He’s been better than Spaling and I assumed his history with DeBoer gave him an edge. Perhaps we’ll see Zubrus on Thursday and that nagging injury that had him sit out Saturday’s regular season finale is keeping him sidelined for the time being at practice.
If these lines hold, we’re looking at:
Pavelski – Thornton – Hertl
Donskoi – Couture – Ward
Nieto – Marleau – Karlsson
Tierney – Spaling – Wingels
Vlasic – Braun
Burns – Martin
Dillon – Polak
The Sharks could do a lot worse than that; and while I’d rather see Zubrus than Spaling, I won’t lose any sleep over these combinations.
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