Sea change: a year after a stunning plunge, the Sharks could make a splash in the playoffs behind a solid system, potential game-stealing goaltending and new leader Patrick Marleau

Sporting News, The, March 29, 2004 by Kara Yorio

The turning point came after the Sharks lost on the road to the Hurricanes, 3-0, in Game 9. The next day in Tampa, the players--led by Damphousse--held a meeting. They closed the doors and hashed things out for two hours. When it was over, they had a new commitment to one another. When one player didn't put in the effort-not going down to block a shot, for example-another would call him on it. That kind of peer pressure is key to any team getting the best from its players.

"It's when guys go silent that you have a problem," Doug Wilson says. "They don't play for Ronnie, and they don't play for me. They play for each other."

The team took a serious hit when it lost Sturm to a season-ending ankle injury March 5. Doug Wilson couldn't replace him at the trade deadline, though he did pick up depth players in center Curtis Brown from the Sabres and defenseman Jason Marshall from the Wild. The Sharks head toward the playoffs as a dangerous team but aren't the favorite to come out of the West.

"They have been relatively healthy, have top-end goaltending and get solid play from their top-four defense," says a Western Conference scout. "A lot of their players are at the right age to have breakthrough years, such as Marleau, Nabokov and Sturm before he was hurt."

As for the playoffs?

"Can they do some damage?" asks the scout. "It's always a possibility if Nabokov gets on a roll, but I don't have them up there with Detroit."

Of course, nobody had the Mighty Ducks up there with the Red Wings last season or the Hurricanes on par with the Devils the season before, and look what happened to those two underdogs. Even without Sturm, the Sharks have a solid base, a good system, potential game-stealing goaltending--and Marleau leading the way.

Marleau and more

Patrick Marleau was taken second
overall in the 1997 draft, which
produced a number of talented players,
including some outside of the top 10
picks (Marian Hossa was taken 12th and
Brenden Morrow 25th).

The points totals of the top five forwards
chosen, each listed with the team that
drafted him:

                             GP      G      A   PTS.

1. Joe Thornton

NHL seasons: 7
2003-04                      72     22     48     70
Regular season              504    159    259    418
Playoffs                     28      6     12     18

2. Patrick Marleau

NHL seasons: 7
2003-04                      72     27     25     52
Regular season              550    152    169    322
Playoffs                     34     11      8     19

3. Olli Jokinen
(now with Panthers)

NHL seasons: 7
2003-04                      75     23     25     48
Regular season              470     94    106    200
Playoffs                      0

6. Daniel Tkaczuk
(now playing in Finland)

NHL seasons: 1
Regular season               19      4      7     11
Playoffs                      0

8. Sergei Samsonov

NHL seasons: 7
2003-04                      51     11     21     32
Regular season              452    140    191    331
Playoffs                     28      7     10     17

--K.Y.