San Jose Sharks defenseman Sam Dickinson will enter the lineup on Monday for the first time in 26-27 against the Dallas Stars.
Per SJHN’s Sheng Peng, Dickinson will return to the d-pair he started training camp with, alongside Jacob Trouba. Nolan Allan, who will be a healthy scratch after playing the first two games, will be the player Dickinson is replacing.
“I’m not going to try to do too much to prove a point or anything like that,” Dickinson told SJHN in Dallas today. “I’m just happy to be in the lineup.”
Dickinson’s training camp left head coach Ryan Warsofsky wanting more, but his belief in the player hasn’t faded. Dickinson almost played on Saturday as Trouba dealt with an illness. Warsofsky’s trust in Dickinson potentially playing that day was high.
“Though Dickie’s a young player, he’s got experience playing in the league last year and understanding the areas that we need to pick up a little bit on,” Warsofsky said on Saturday. “We feel really comfortable in that area.”
The San Jose Sharks are trying to win their third straight game to start the season on Monday against a Stars team searching for its identity. The Stars are 0-2-0 to start the year and have only scored once. They dropped their first game 4-0 to the St. Louis Blues and their second game 2-1 to the Nashville Predators.
Yaroslav Askarov will get his third straight start on Monday. Although he’s allowed seven goals in two games, he isn’t the reason why goals are going in.
Whether it is fluky bounces or bad turnovers in front of him, Askarov has battled. He’s given the Sharks a chance to win by making the big save at the right moment.