Sharks defenseman Vincent Desharnais upended Panthers forward Mackie Samoskevich along the boards in the San Jose end. Evan Rodrigues then came in and leveled Desharnais with a hit from behind. That caused a melee to the side of the Sharks' net, with Nedeljkovic jumping to get a piece of Rodrigues. A few seconds later, Bobrovsky skated the length of the ice to get at Nedeljkovic.
The Sharks will see how both stack up against the defending Stanley Cup Champions today. Last time these two teams met, it ended favorably for the Sharks. San Jose won 3-1 at home with Yaroslav Askarov making 38 saves in the win. The Panthers are 25-19-3 this season, sitting seventh in the Atlantic Division and fifth in the Eastern Conference wild card race. Florida is 5-4-1 in its last 10 games. It beat the Washington Capitals 5-2 on Saturday.
Potentially needing to clear a roster spot for some soon-to-be healthy players, the San Jose Sharks on Sunday placed veteran defenseman Nick Leddy on waivers. Leddy, 34, is one of seven defensemen on San Jose's active roster. But the Sharks, who are already carrying the maximum 23 players, were soon going to be facing a roster crunch with defensemen Vincent Desharnais and Shakir Mukhamadullin both nearing a return from their respective injuries.
With Kovacevic back and Simon Nemec, 21, needing to play games in the eyes of Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald, and Brett Pesce a bright spot on the team's blue line, Hamilton is, in the words of New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe, the odd-man out. It's not that simple, according to Hamilton's agent, J.P. Barry, who told The Athletic he views Hamilton's scratching as a calculated maneuver intended to force the 2020-21 NHL All-Star to accept a trade.
Ryan Reaves opened the scoring for San Jose (18-17-3) with a tap-in of a loose puck at the 6:13 mark of the first period. John Klingberg doubled the lead with a shot from the center of the blue line at 7:55 after a screen from Igor Chernyshov limited the visibility of Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko. Vancouver (15-19-3) responded with a power-play goal by Linus Karlsson, who tapped in a cross-ice pass from Conor Garland for an easy score to make it 2-1 at 10:04.
