TORONTO – Garret Sparks is back on the ice with the Toronto Marlies after being disciplined for an incident on social media, but it’s unclear when he might play again.
The 23-year-old was sent home from a road trip last week after it was found that he used threatening and sexist language in a Facebook goalie group.
Sparks skated with a group of extra players at Ricoh Coliseum before Tuesday’s game against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and wasn’t schedule to be in the lineup later that night. When asked if his participation indicated that a team suspension had been lifted, Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe was vague about Sparks’s status.
“I don’t know if we’ve ever really put any sort of label on it,” said Keefe. “He’s back with the team, he’s not with the main group. We’ve been balancing a number of goalies since we’ve started really. He’s with the non-game group here – skating, working out, all that kind of stuff.
“But Jeff Glass and (Antoine) Bibeau are the two guys that are going to get the goalie duties for the game.”
The American Hockey League team declined to make Sparks available to reporters.
The Marlies goalie is believed to have been coming to the defence of a disabled person earlier this month when he issued an expletive-laden threat on the Facebook group he helps administer. Sparks finished off his post by telling another user: “God, you sound like a 13-year-old girl.”
While Keefe was aware of what happened, he didn’t have a hand in doling out the punishment. Tuesday’s game will be the third Sparks has been scratched for.
“I think it’s a situation that management has dealt with right from the beginning,” said Keefe. “It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to handle it (now).”
The Marlies are starting a stretch of four games in six days, but the coach isn’t sure if Sparks will be available to him this weekend. He said that he’s taking things day by day.
Sparks in his fourth professional season and appeared in 17 NHL games for the Maple Leafs last year, going 6-9-1 with an .893 save percentage.
Asked if the incident might be used as a learning tool for other players in a young dressing room, Keefe indicated he wouldn’t take that route.
“We’re not making much of a big deal out of it,” he said. “We haven’t addressed it as a team. We don’t plan to.”
