From THN's Archive: No More Shark Tanks

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No More Shark Tanks - Dec. 15, 2008 - Vol. 62, Iss. 12  – David Pollak

After all, this franchise has a pattern of regular season success followed by playoff frustration. Didn’t they finish with 108 points a year ago, only to be bounced out of the playoffs in the second round? Again?

But top to bottom, those in the organization said what happened in the past has no bearing on the present.

“It’s the first time this group has been together,” said GM Doug Wilson, who has long contended that even minor tinkering with a roster can significantly change a team’s makeup.

And the tinkering this summer was anything but minor.

Veteran coach Ron Wilson was replaced by rookie bench boss Todd McLellan and his shoot-shoot-shoot approach. Gone from the blueline are Brian Campbell, Craig Rivet and Matt Carle. In their place are Rob Blake, Dan Boyle and Brad Lukowich.

And what emerged in the first two months of the season is a team that bought into whatever McLellan was selling.

“The biggest thing,” McLellan said, “is the guys have been receptive.”

It’s still early in the season. The team expects rough spots along the way. But there are reasons to think these Sharks may finally be the real deal.

1. COACH CONFIDENCE

For now, forget the X’s and O’s.

One reason many of the Sharks are performing so well this season – “internal growth,” Wilson calls it – is the fact McLellan and his staff recognize hockey is a game of mistakes. And each one doesn’t need to be pointed out on the spot or have serious consequences.

Defenseman Douglas Murray, for example, coughed up the puck on Oct. 28 to Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin in front of the San Jose net. Luckily for the Sharks, Malkin’s shot went wide.

“It was an absolutely bonehead play and I came back to the bench and didn’t get yelled at,” Murray said. “I think in the past they would have made a much bigger deal of it.”

Sophomore right winger Devin Setoguchi – who is having a breakout year on a line with Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau – said team confidence is up because players are less afraid to make mistakes.

Which is part of McLellan’s plan.

“I want the players to have the courage to make plays on the ice,” McLellan said. “When it’s a real obvious mistake, I don’t know if we have to be in their ear. They know they’ve made it.

“And,” the coach added, “we have to make mistakes to get better.”

But don’t think that means less accountability,

“There’s more of a level of seriousness from the coaches this year,” said center Jeremy Roenick. “Even if we’re winning, we still get some heated meetings…They don’t let anything slide.”

2. SET THE STRATEGY

Now for the X’s and O’s.

From the day he left Detroit as an assistant coach to take over behind the San Jose bench, McLellan has been talking about a foundation of principles.

That’s coach-speak for saying he had a style of hockey – one similar to that of the Red Wings – he wanted to impose on the Sharks. He hoped they would welcome the change, and they have.

It sounds relatively simple: fly up the middle, shoot the puck, crash the net, activate the defense, park a big body in front of the goalie – especially on the power play.

Repeat.

Is that it?

“Pretty much,” said captain Patrick Marleau, who has thrived under McLellan and may well double his paltry point total of 48 from a year ago. “After you shoot, there are certain spots where the puck is going to go and we’ve got to have guys in position to retrieve those. It’s a fun way to play.”

Outsiders call it a puck-possession game, but McLellan doesn’t like that label for either Detroit or San Jose.

“Detroit gives up the puck,” he said. “It’s all about getting it back.”

The Sharks adapted immediately. They were leading the NHL in shots per game and set a franchise record with 57 against Nashville on Nov. 11. They had more than 40 shots in nine of their first 20 games.

Five of the team’s top six forwards are well ahead of their scoring pace of last season. And the sixth – Joe Thornton – is cruising along at more than a point-per-game clip.

3. OFFENSE FROM DEFENSE

Since that franchise-changing trade with Boston in November of 2005, opposing teams have had one game plan: Stop Thornton, stop the Sharks.

Now, the challenge is more complicated.

“It’s not like you say, ‘OK, let’s shut down Thornton,’ because then you’ve got Setoguchi… and you’ve got Boyle and (Christian) Ehrhoff,” said Washington coach Bruce Boudreau before the Sharks shellacked the Capitals 7-2 in late November. “All of these guys can put the puck in.”

San Jose is getting balanced scoring from its top two lines with forwards Ryane Clowe, Joe Pavelski and Milan Michalek chipping in key goals.

But the Sharks also have the NHL’s most offensively prolific defensemen. In late November, Boyle, Blake and Ehrhoff were three of the league’s top five scoring blueliners.

Boyle, fully recovered from his injury-plagued final season with the Tampa Bay Lightning, uses the full 200 feet of ice. Blake has seen his productivity rebound after two mediocre years in Los Angeles. And Ehrhoff has become a bigger threat with an adjusted shot and a high-tech stick.

Balanced scoring with defensemen playing a big role follows the McLellan blueprint. In theory, if shots from the blueline reach the goalmouth, forwards are right there to create screens and scoop up rebounds for easy goals. The plan is working.

“That traffic is so key,” Blake said. “It’s not easy to go to the net. It’s hard work. But there are rewards and when you start benefiting from that, you start doing it more and more.”

4. GHOSTS OF PLAYOFFS PAST?

You might think three consecutive second round playoff exits would haunt a team with Stanley Cup aspirations. Not the case, say the Sharks.

“I don’t feel any ghosts at all,” Roenick said, “but if there were ghosts, the start of the year kind of shooed them away – the Anaheim ghost, the Dallas ghost, the Detroit ghost.”

The Sharks had early-season victories over each of those conference rivals. Roenick’s point, of course, was the current team is capable of defeating opponents who have been major obstacles in the past.

Roenick can only compare the current Sharks with last year’s crew. But he sees a difference beyond personnel and style of play.

“This is a very tight-knit group,” he said. “We’re more focused now.”

McLellan has said from the start that his goal is to get the Sharks playing a style of hockey that will enable them to win the Stanley Cup. To that end, the process – for now, at least – matters more than the results, no matter how much success the team has had. Losing to Nashville while unleashing 57 shots, for example, is less trouble-some than a sloppy win over Chicago.

At some point, the Sharks will have to confront their post-season demons more directly. Still, everyone knows what’s on the line.

“We can’t think about what are we going to do in the playoffs,” said goalie Evgeni Nabokov. “It’s way too early. We just cannot approach the process that way. When the time comes, we’re just going to have to answer the bell. Otherwise, it’s going to be the same story.”

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