Sharks Practice: Liljegren, Kovalenko Injury Updates

MONTREAL — It doesn’t look like the San Jose Sharks will have to call up a defenseman.

Timothy Liljegren left the Sharks’ Feb. 23 game at the Calgary Flames with an upper-body injury. No. 7 defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic came in for Liljegren the next day, Feb. 24 at the Winnipeg Jets.

If Liljegren was seriously hurt, that would’ve left the San Jose Sharks with six healthy defensemen with five games left in a road trip, something they would’ve rectified, if only for line-up insurance.

But good news, Liljegren was back at practice on Wednesday.

Here are how lines looked:

Eklund-Celebrini-Toffoli
Zetterlund-Wennberg-Smith
Graf-Sturm-Kunin
Grundstrom-Dellandrea-Goodrow
Duehr-Kostin-Kovalenko

Walman-Thrun
Ferraro-Thompson
Vlasic-Mukhamadullin
Liljegren

While Thompson played ahead of Liljegren 5-on-5, Liljegren was on the power play during practice, usually a sign that a player will be in the line-up:

Walman-Celebrini-Smith-Eklund-Toffoli
Liljegren-Graf-Zetterlund-Wennberg-Kunin

“Good,” San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky said, when asked how Liljegren looked in his return to practice. “I’d say he’s a game-time decision.”

Best guess, Thompson leaves the line-up for Liljegren. Warsofsky confirmed that hometown hero Vlasic, a frequent scratch this season, will play on Thursday at the Montreal Canadiens.

Nikolai Kovalenko, wearing an orange no-contact jersey, also returned to practice.

Kovalenko had an upper-body injury and has been out of the line-up since Jan. 30.

Warsofsky says Kovalenko looked good, but hadn’t spoken to the trainers about his day yet.