SAN JOSE -– Tomas Hertl, top line Sharks center?
Sure looked like it at practice on Friday.
The third year Czech native skated between Sharks leading scorer Joe Pavelski and Patrick Marleau, as Pete DeBoer shuffled his lines with Logan Couture out again and his club mired in a five-game losing streak.
The other forward lines were Joe Thornton centering Melker Karlsson and Tommy Wingels; Chris Tierney between Joel Ward and Joonas Donskoi; and rookie Ryan Carpenter skating with Dainius Zubrus and Mike Brown. Ben Smith (concussion) and Matt Nieto (lower body injury) are the other injured players, along with Couture.