SAN JOSE – Kevin Labanc, from all indications, will be a healthy scratch for just the second time this season and Noah Gregor will re-enter the lineup Monday when the Sharks play the New Jersey Devils in a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday matinee game at SAP Center.
Gregor, who has been a scratch for the last eight games, skated on the Sharks’ third line Sunday with Nico Sturm and Nick Bonino. Labanc rotated in on that line during drills, but was not part of either Sharks’ power play unit, as recent waiver claim Mikey Eyssimont skated with the second group.
Labanc had a goal and an assist in the Sharks’ 4-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Jan. 10 but faced some criticism from Sharks coach David Quinn for his lack of defensive effort on a Christian Fischer goal near the end of the first period.
Quinn benched Labanc for the first half of the second period but gave him a chance to return, and liked the way he bounced back, as the Sharks won in their first visit to 5,000-seat Mullett Arena in Tempe, Arizona.
Labanc, though, hadn’t been as sharp the last two games in Quinn’s eyes – although several players could fit that description – as the Sharks lost to both the Los Angeles Kings and Edmonton Oilers.
“He and I have talked. He’s just got to play better,” Quinn said. “There’s not really one thing. It’s an overall thing. He’s aware.”
Labanc, in the third year of a four-year, $18.9 million contract, has been a healthy scratch once before this season as he sat out the Sharks’ Oct. 18 game at Madison Square Garden in his hometown of New York.
But Labanc, 27, has skated in all 38 games since and is sixth on the Sharks with 25 points had been having something of a bounce-back season after he had major shoulder surgery in Dec. 2021.
The Sharks’ next game after Monday is Wednesday against the Dallas Stars.
FRESH START: Gregor has been a scratch for eight straight games and Monday’s game, if he plays, will be his first since Dec. 27.
Gregor, who has played in just 19 of the Sharks’ first 44 games, told this news organization Friday that he had grown frustrated with the repeated healthy scratches, feeling that he should be playing more often after an improved 2021-2022 season.
Gregor, who has two goals in 19 games, also said there hadn’t been enough communication between himself and the coaching staff. But the 24-year-old winger, and Quinn, both said Sunday that the issue if there was one, has been resolved.
“We’ve talked and we’re on the same page,” Gregor said, “so, looking forward to whatever comes next.”
Quinn said he and Gregor talked at length prior to the Sharks’ Jan. 1 game in Chicago, pointing out, too, that assistant coaches had also talked to Gregor, and that the coach’s door was open as well.
Before Sunday’s practice, Quinn spoke with Gregor to let him know, or reiterate, where he stood, saying, “you’re close, keep doing what you’re doing, and we’ve talked about what you need to do.
“I actually said to him, ‘I feel like I should come to you every day but we’ve talked about this for six months about what we’re looking for, so I don’t feel I have to say it to you every single time.’”
FEELING BETTER: Defenseman Scott Harrington practiced Sunday and could be an option to play Monday. Harrington sat out Friday’s 7-1 Sharks loss to the Oilers, two days after he suffered a head injury on a reverse check by Kings forward Brendan Lemieux toward the end of the first period.
“I felt OK, but ultimately, you have to be smart with that stuff,” Harrington said. “It felt good today to go out and practice with the guys, get a good sweat in and feel like a hockey player.”
