San Jose Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer will not be behind the bench on Saturday, the team announced Saturday morning.
He is leaving the team for Saturday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins due to a personal matter.
General manager Doug Wilson announced that assistant coaches Steve Spott, Bob Boughner and Johan Hedberg will “jointly handle the coaching duties” for the single game that DeBoer is announced to be missing. The team did not offer any details as to the nature of DeBoer’s absence.
DeBoer, in his first year of coaching the Sharks following the departure of Todd McLellan, has the team on a four-game winning streak on their current six-game road trip. The franchise has never won all six games of a road trip previously. Saturday’s game is the first end of a back-to-back that will end the road trip. They play the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.
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Dustin Nelson is the News Editor for The Hockey Writers. He’s a contributor to Hockey Prospectus, Hockey Wilderness, and writes a column for Rotowire. He’s also written for Gone Puck Wild, Wild Xtra, InDigest, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, Tiny Mix Tapes, Prefix Magazine & other publications. Have a tip? Email him at dlukenelson[at]gmail[dot]com.