Fri, Dec. 06, 2002



Wilson uses familiar lines
COACH LOOKS FOR SPARK, REUNITES PLAYOFF UNITS
By Victor Chi
Mercury News

In his first practice as Sharks coach Thursday, Ron Wilson pulled a page out of the team's recent past. His top three lines were the same ones the Sharks used in the playoffs last season.

As a refresher course, those lines are Marco Sturm-Patrick Marleau-Teemu Selanne, Adam Graves-Vincent Damphousse-Owen Nolan and Scott Thornton-Mike Ricci-Niklas Sundstrom. And the only wrinkle to the fourth line of Todd Harvey, Mark Smith and Matt Bradley was that Smith was in for the departed Stephane Matteau.

``I want to create a comfort level,'' said Wilson, who will work his first game for the Sharks tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets. ``I'm going to start from where everything was at the end of last season and let the players sort things out. Obviously the Marleau line is one of the quickest in the league. Other lines have other strengths, and that's tough to play against when each line has its own identity.''

The back-to-the-future approach suited the players just fine.

``I don't think there's going to be a drastic change,'' Nolan said. ``Some small things here and there. I don't think he's going to give us a total face-lift. That wasn't the problem that was costing us games.''

Selanne, coached by Wilson for two seasons with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, is also expecting tweaks rather than an overhaul.

``I'm sure he's going to add some of his own tools to our system,'' Selanne said. ``But I don't think you'll see much difference. But it is going to be interesting. I haven't played for him in five years. That's a long time. I don't know what tools he's added to his toolbox.''

On defense, interim coaches Cap Raeder and Doug Wilson paired Mike Rathje and Jeff Jillson in the Sharks' overtime victory Tuesday in Phoenix. Ron Wilson maintained that tandem Thursday, which left Marcus Ragnarsson-Brad Stuart and Scott Hannan-Bryan Marchment as the other pairings.

Using a Rathje-Jillson pairing had been the Sharks' intent during training camp. But with Stuart unsigned until Nov. 13, Darryl Sutter, who was fired abruptly as head coach Sunday, had to abandon that idea.

``And once Stuey gets back to 100 percent, we'll be even better, but at least we have him on the ice now,'' Rathje said.

After Jillson committed a string of costly errors -- including the turnover that led to the decisive goal in Sutter's last game Saturday -- Sutter had curbed Jillson's ice time.

So it's an interesting twist that Wilson is going with Sutter's original plan to team Rathje and Jillson, who has just 72 games of NHL experience. Wilson is looking for Rathje to serve as an on-the-ice security blanket for Jillson.

``Rathje has become one of the most dependable defensemen in this league,'' Wilson said.
``Sometimes you struggle as a sophomore. It's your second year. You try to add to your game and wind up shooting yourself in the foot. We're going to play him with a guy who can back him up. . . .With young defensemen, there are going to be breakdowns.''

Speaking of mistakes, Wilson has already installed a fine system: If he makes a reference to Washington when the team is on the ice, the players can fine him. But if a player talks about how they used to do things, Wilson can fine the player.

``Mike Ricci is going to be the head policeman in charge of fines,'' Wilson said.

Damphousse was the first to be sanctioned.

``He said, `This is how we used to break out,' '' Wilson said. ``So we nailed him right away.''

How much did it cost Damphousse?

``We still have to figure out a system of how much,'' Ricci said. ``But whatever it is, Vinnie's already minus-1.''

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