SAN JOSE – Those waiting for goalie Georgi Romanov to make his first career start for the San Jose Sharks might not have to wait much longer.
Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said Saturday that he might give Romanov a start sometime during this homestand, which continues for two more weeks. After Saturday, the Sharks’ next home games come later next week as they host the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday and the Boston Bruins on March 22.
The homestand wraps up the following week with games against the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 27 and the New York Rangers on March 29.
Romanov, a pending restricted free agent, made two relief appearances for the Sharks at the end of last season, stopping 29 of 30 shots in games against the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames.
“I think so. We’ll see,” Warsofsky said about starting Romanov. “We’ll get through today. We have four days until our next game.”
Romanov, 25, joined the Sharks roster on March 5 after fellow goalie Vitek Vanecek on March 5 to the Florida Panthers. He’s had a steady diet of practices with the Sharks ever since, but had not gotten into a game as veteran Alexandar Georgiev has played every minute since the deal.
Saturday’s game against Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals marked Georgiev’s seventh consecutive start dating back to March 3. In the previous six games, Georgiev is 3-3-0 with a .870 save percentage.
LINEUP CHANGES: Eight days after he was acquired from the Ottawa Senators, Zack Ostapchuk is making his Sharks debut Saturday and will start on the fourth line with Klim Kostin and Barclay Goodrow.
With Ostapchuk going in, Nikolai Kovalenko will come out of the lineup and Carl Grundstrom will be a healthy scratch for the second straight game,
At 6-foot-4 and 212 pounds, Ostapchuk said Friday that he wanted to come out and lay the body early in Saturday’s game. That’s fine with Warsofsky, who wants the 21-year-old to play to his identity.
“I think he knows what that is, and we’ll work through the mistakes,” Warsofsky said. “It’s a game of mistakes. I’m sure he’ll make some structure-wise, with some new structure that he’s learning. But I want him to go out there and compete and play to his ability of what his identity is, and we’ll correct mistakes as we go.”
Kovalenko returned to the Sharks’ lineup on March 6 after missing nine games with an injury. In the four games since, Kovalenko has had one goal, one shot, three hits, and one blocked shot, with five giveaways, while averaging just under 11 minutes of ice time per game.
Kovalenko needs to regain the puck-hunting and forechecking style he had when the Sharks first acquired him in December.
“When you don’t have your ‘A’ game,” Warsofsky said, “what does your ‘B’ and ‘C’ game look like? How are you impacting the game in different ways? Are you being disruptive on the forecheck? Are you being physical, good defensively, blocking shots? You can’t just have one game. You have to have a couple different areas of your game that you can impact and help our hockey team.
“That’s not just (Kovalenko). That’s a lot of young players that come into this league.”