The San Jose Sharks had one of the worst first seasons in NHL history.
The San Jose Sharks had one of the worst first seasons in NHL history.
This season San Jose started with an 11-game losing streak but has recovered nicely. Back in 1995, the Sharks did not have good goaltending like they do now.
In today's THN Archive story, we take a look at the NHL's oddball team from 1995.
TOOTHLESS SHARKS
November 17, 1995 – Vol. 49 Issue 10
By Mike Brophy
The San Jose Sharks have always taken pride in being different. Their front office is full of Americans, until recently they had three people holding down one GM’s job, they’re loaded with Europeans and they beat teams they have no business beating in the playoffs.
Here’s a team that promoted its coaches from the Kansas City Blades of the International League and demoted its assistant coaches to Kansas City three days after the NHL season started.
Early this season, the Sharks were true to form as the NHL’s oddball. They were the only team in the league to go Oh-for-October and were alone in their pursuit of a first win.
What happened? Two years ago, the Sharks set a record for the greatest single season improvement in NHL history. This was supposed to be a team on the rise. But has San Jose lost its way?
Some people think so.
“They don’t seem to know what type of a team they want,” said an NHL pro scout. “A small team with a bunch of speedy foreigners or a tough team.”
The Sharks were not happy with just being a team that snuck up on everybody in the playoffs. They really thought they were moving toward the status of contender, despite the fact that their only off-season move was signing enforcer Dave Brown. Their plan of building through the draft with speed and skill and giving their young players a chance to develop at the NHL level was progressing.
But after an 0-8-3 start, suddenly a team that looked like it had a concrete game plan looked like it was coming apart at the seams.
The Sharks have made a number of moves to get back on track:
■ Star center Igor Larionov left the team in a dispute over playing time and was traded to the Detroit Red Wings for sniper Ray Sheppard.
■ Offense-minded defenseman Sandis Ozol-insh was dealt to the Colorado Avalanche for grinding gunner Owen Nolan.
■ After scoring no points in five games with the Sharks, Viktor Kozlov was sent to Kansas City to become a center. The 6-foot-5,225-pound left winger was the sixth overall pick in the 1993 entry draft and hopes were high for him.
The Sharks earned a reputation of being playoff upset kings after knocking off the highly favored Detroit Red Wings and Calgary Flames, respectively, in the first round of post-season play the past two years.
That doesn’t change the fact they have been mediocre in the regular season. Even the Sharks have grown tired of hearing about their playoff exploits and were hoping for a more fruitful, consistent regular season this year.
“Eventually you have to get to the point where you expect to win games,” said Sharks’ GM Dean Lombardi. “We are not at that point.”
The Sharks were outshot in 10 of their first 11 games. Their goaltending, specifically Arturs Irbe who started nine of the 11 games, struggled badly.
A number of key individuals were also struggling. Jeff Friesen, who led the team in goals last season with 15 as an 18-year-old, had three points and was left out of the lineup in two games.
Ray Whitney, 23, who tied for third in team scoring last season, had one goal and four points in nine games and was scratched twice.
Pat Falloon, the No. 2 pick in the 1991 draft with whom the Sharks have been so patient, had three goals in eight games, but had been kept out of three games. The 23-year-old was rumored to be up for trade.
Slow starts are nothing new to Sharks’ coach Kevin Constantine and he is convinced this season can still have a happy ending. The Sharks were 0-8-1 in Constantine’s rookie season two years ago. They went 33-27-4 the rest of the way and made it within one game of the semifinals.
“At least that gives you some hope,” Constantine said. “You know the way you start isn’t necessarily the way the rest of your season will go. At the same time, just because we turned things around in the past doesn’t mean it will automatically happen this year.”
Constantine is excited about the addition of Nolan and Sheppard. Teamed with the likes of veterans Craig Janney, Ulf Dahlen, Jamie Baker and Kevin Miller, the Sharks have an improved mix of youth and experience. He said the team went through a number of successful and intense practices after Sheppard and Nolan arrived-the best in his tenure as coach.
Sheppard and Nolan have combined for 260 goals over the past four seasons and were among just five players who topped the 30-goal mark in last season’s 48-game schedule. Sheppard had four goals and five points in his first five games; Nolan one goal, four points and several solid bodychecks in his first three games.
The Sharks have been criticized in the past for a large European quota and Lombardi said people are wrong if they think acquiring Nolan and Sheppard were simply moves to increase their North American numbers.
“Maybe Nolan represents something Canada stands for-a mean guy who scores goals-but his nationality had nothing to do with us acquiring him,” Lombardi said. “We wouldn’t care if he was from China.”
Adding the pair does not change the fact many of the Sharks’ regulars are still in the development stage.
“You look at the players we use and consider their games played,” Constantine said. “(Ville) Peltonen is new to the league; (Marcus) Rag-narsson is new to the league; (Shean) Donovan is in his 20s in games; (Andrei) Nazarov around 40; (Michal) Sy-kora, Friesen and (Vlastimil) Kroupa all around 50. They are still testing the waters.”
Clearly the Sharks’ biggest concern is in goal. Through Nov. 3 they were last in goals-against average, allowing 4.41 per game.
Irbe’s play has been on the decline since the 1993-94 playoffs. He enjoyed a tremendous regular season, leading the NHL in minutes with 4,412 that season, but his post-season play was ordinary. It was not the reason the Sharks upset Detroit.
Irbe had an 86.1 save percentage on 238 shots in his first nine starts this season. Sharks’ management pointed to other goalies who faced more shots, Sean Burke of the Hartford Whalers (289 shots against, 90.7 save percentage), Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres (328, 91.8) and Grant Fuhr of the St. Louis Blues (373, 90.9), and designated goaltending as Problem Area No. 1. Save percentage is not a good indicator of scoring chances faced, but Irbe’s guessing style and horrible puckhandling are wearing thin.
The team’s defense, featuring youngsters Mike Rathje, Sykora, Jay More, Kroupa and newcomer Ragnarsson, is built on size and youth, but was being undermined by its goalie.
THE SCORE
SHARKS’ DEFENSE UNDERMINED BY SHAKY GOALTENDING
The Sharks’ defense averages 24.1 years, 6-foot-3 and 206 pounds. By comparison, the Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils’ defense averages 28.7 years, 6-foot-1 and 198 pounds.
Ragnarsson’s contribution made Ozolinsh, who scored 26 goals two years ago, expendable. The 24-year-old Ragnarsson had four goals and seven points in 10 games and is proving to be less of a defensive liability.
The Sharks feel it is only a matter of time before its defense is one of the best in the league.
“It might be unrealistic of us to play all our kids on the backline at once,” Lombardi said. “Especially when all their mistakes end up in our net.”
Lombardi admits the Sharks do certain things differently than other teams, but he doesn’t claim to be perfect.
“At the end of each year I make a list of my mistakes and it’s pretty friggin’ long,” Lombardi said.
But there’s no doubt they are different. Consider:
■ Sharks’ scouts don’t socialize with other team’s scouts on the road.
“Why the hell would we be discussing prospects and showing other teams our list?” Lombardi said.
■ They rent an apartment in Russia to keep tabs on Russian prospects.
“Do you know what teams pay a night for a room? Two hundred dollars,” the GM said. “We sign a lease for $500 a year. That’s simple economics.”
■ Director of player personnel Chuck Grillo runs a summer evaluation camp. That’s where they discovered Friesen was too fast to ignore in the draft.
■ In last year’s draft, the Sharks took seven players from Finland, including 6-foot-6 left winger Teemu Riihijarvi with the 12th overall pick. Many teams had Riihijarvi pegged as a second-rounder.
“It was a good year for Finnish prospects,” Lombardi reasoned. “I don’t think we’re different. We’re American so we get singled out.”
Lombardi said he has grown used to criticism and he accepts most of it. But when responding to one executive’s claims the Sharks were paying a price for having catered to their young players at the expense of veterans, Lombardi is very defensive.
“The only player we ever catered to was Larionov and that was a mistake,” he said, referring to the trade of captain Bob Errey last season after Larionov complained when Errey questioned his work ethic.
Lombardi is still optimistic about the future.
“You see what Chuck has done in the draft and there is no reason to suggest he can’t continue doing it. In baseball the Atlanta Braves and Toronto Blue Jays set themselves up so they could trade youngsters for players who could contribute immediately and still had more talented young players in the system.
“We know we might have to make some decisions on our young players soon. We just have to make sure we make the right decisions.”