Sharks lose Alexander Wennberg week-to-week

First sign something was off came Thursday morning in Ottawa.

Sheng Peng

@Sheng_Peng

Wennberg not on the ice for morning skate

Wennberg got hurt in the 3rd period of Monday's 3-1 loss in Toronto. He went to the room in the middle of the frame, came back, then left again and didn't finish. At first Warsofsky called it day-to-day. He sat Tuesday in Montreal, and by Thursday morning day-to-day had turned into something a lot longer.

Curtis Pashelka

@CurtisPashelka

Wennberg now considered more week to week at this point, Warsofsky says. He’ll be reevaluated once the Sharks return to San Jose. Big loss

"Big loss" is right. Wennberg isn't the guy selling jerseys in San Jose, but he's the veteran center who makes the young core's lives easier. The Sharks liked him enough to re-sign him in January to a 3-year, $18 million extension, a $6 million AAV. When they gave him that deal he had 26 points in 41 games. You don't pay a 3rd-year guy $6 million to watch from the press box.

Sheng Peng

@Sheng_Peng

Wennberg will not play rest of trip, Warsofsky says he’s week-to-week with his upper-body injury and will be reevaluated when they get back to San Jose

The good news is the Sharks just showed they can survive a night without him. Tuesday in Montreal they were down 2 in the 3rd period and came back to win 4-3 in overtime, with Macklin Celebrini scoring the winner as part of his first 2-goal game of the season. That win snapped a 0-1-1 skid. Celebrini leads the team with 5 goals and 9 assists, and with Wennberg out the middle of the ice is going to lean on him even harder.

The bad news is everywhere else. Yaroslav Askarov came into Thursday at 2-4-0 with a.865 save percentage, and Warsofsky's postgame message in Montreal was basically "play simple hockey." A team still trying to find its game just lost a center who drives a lot of the simple stuff: faceoffs, defensive-zone reads, the minutes nobody notices until nobody is playing them.

Next up is the rest of the trip, starting Thursday night in Ottawa, and then the real update comes when the team gets home and Wennberg gets looked at again. Week-to-week can mean 10 days or it can mean a month. Until San Jose says otherwise, figure on a stretch of games with the Sharks' center depth running thin and a lot of extra minutes for the kids.