Sharks' Clowe to sit vs. Flames

SAN JOSE - San Jose Sharks power forward Ryane Clowe will miss Tuesday night's game at HP Pavilion against Calgary because of an injury he suffered Jan. 10 at Minnesota when he was knocked face-first into the boards.

Clowe played the Sharks' next two games at Winnipeg and Columbus while wearing a cage to protect his face. Then on Sunday against Chicago, he played without the cage, saying that it was making it difficult for him to see on the ice.

"Clowie won't play tonight. He's got an upper-body injury, and he's day to day," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said after San Jose's morning skate, saying Clowe's injury is related to his face-plant against the Wild.

With Clowe out of his normal spot on the second line, McLellan will have to do some serious juggling. During Tuesday morning's skate, Patrick Marleau moved back from the top line and took Clowe's spot with center Logan Couture and winger Benn Ferriero. Third-line wing Jamie McGinn skated on the top line with Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski. Tommy Wingels took McGinn's spot on the third line, and Frazer McLaren skated on the fourth line.

"We'll come up with some line combinations which will not be written in stone," McLellan said. "We'll start from there. We'll see what the first five to 10 minutes gives us. Whoever's playing well is going to play."

The Sharks are already missing top-six forward Martin Havlat, who's out after undergoing surgery to repair a torn hamstring tendon.

"When you're missing the Havlats and Clowes, you begin to juggle and you try to find three real strong lines right off the bat," McLellan said.

McGinn said he's comfortable skating on the top line.

"I'll be ready to go and just continue to do the same stuff I've been successful with this year," McGinn said. "So I'm just going to keep skating and working hard. I'm fine with it. It doesn't change the fact of what I'm doing. I've got to keep things simple and just play my game."

McGinn has raised his level of play this season and already has nine goals and seven assists.

"I think at this point last year we were begging for a goal, trying to get him to understand what he needed to do as a player," McLellan said. "Never quite got it. Needed to go back to the minors to refine that. Came back this year with a pretty clear conscience and pretty clear menu of what he needs to do as a player to be successful, and he's playing toward that."

Sharks forward Andrew Desjardins skated Tuesday morning for the first time since taking a hit to the head from Columbus' Dane Byers on Saturday but won't be in the lineup against the Flames.

"I went out there and tested the waters a bit," Desjardins said. "I felt good. We have to go day by day and make sure everything's right."

Desjardins said he has yet to take his baseline concussion test.

"The fact that he put the skates on and was out there is a step in the right direction," McLellan said.

Byers was suspended three games by the NHL for his shoulder-to-head hit on Desjardins.

"We're happy that the league sent a message," McLellan said. "Hopefully, again, the players watch, listen and learn. They have to. They have to take care of each other. It doesn't mean you can't play physical, but they're responsible for those type of hits."