Sharks Will Soon Seem Familiar

Eight hours before the Kings and the San Jose Sharks are scheduled to trade nosebleeds, fans are lined up outside the Forum tunnel, awaiting the conclusion of the morning skate and a possible rendezvous with Luc Robitaille or Tony Granato--maybe even a chance to touch the hem of Wayne Gretzky’s robes.

No fan waits for San Jose. Shark sentiment is evident a few feet away, on the dirty asphalt parking lot, where six Shark trading cards are strewn.

One Mikhail Kravets.

One Ed Courtenay.

Four Jean-Francois Quintin.

Discards in real life, and in the bottom-line world of sports collectibles, they complete a scene that should be subtitled: Winning team . . . expansion team.

A year ago, it was easy to warm up to a San Jose Shark. Then, they were new, they were cute, they were teal. But at 11-69-2 with a week to go in their second NHL season, the novelty has given way to embarrassment, the exuberance traded in for exasperation.

When the Sharks won their opener, in overtime over Winnipeg, and lost their next nine, they assumed they had seen the worst of it. In retrospect, the nine-game skid was a pittance and a warm-up, preceding a league record-tying 17-game losing streak and not one, but two, 13-game losing streaks.

In the Bay Area, “Holiday On Ice” has come to mean “Shark victory.” San Jose beat Calgary (again, in overtime) the day before Thanksgiving, didn’t win again until the day after Christmas and didn’t win again until Valentine’s Day. Between holidays, that’s 13 and 17 consecutive defeats. This week, the Sharks were stuck on 13 again before their 5-2 humiliation of Edmonton Tuesday night, five days before Easter.

In January, because of scheduling conflicts with the Cow Palace, the Sharks spent three straight weeks on the road. They went 0-9-0. Their record for December was 1-13-0. Their record for January was 0-13-1. Their record on the road is 3-37-1. Their record when trailing after two periods is 0-56-0.

And yet, they are not the worst team in the NHL. That distinction belongs to Ottawa, another expansion team, which has broken in, and broken a town’s heart, at 9-67-4.

Anaheim and Miami, welcome aboard.

In case those cities have any doubts, this is expansion hockey:

--On Feb. 10, the Sharks go into Calgary and surprise the Flames by taking a 1-0 first-period lead. Calgary then scores 13 unanswered goals. Sharks lose, 13-1.

--On Feb. 12, the Sharks lose at Edmonton, 6-0, to tie the ‘74-’75 Washington Capitals for the league’s longest losing streak at 17. Horn sounds and San Jose goaltender Jeff Hackett splinters his stick against the Shark bench, a tirade captured on national television for all of Canada to see.

“I caught a lot of . . . for that,” says Hackett, whose playing time has been sparse ever since. “The coaches felt I was hurting the team by (illustrating) the frustrations of our team.

“But that’s my nature. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t do anything. Maybe if I’d done it behind closed doors, it wouldn’t have been any big deal. My mistake was doing it on national TV, right by our bench. But, you learn.”

--On March 23, the Sharks are to play the Pittsburgh Penguins. The team hotel is three blocks from Civic Arena, so six Sharks and assistant publicity director Ken Arnold decide to walk to the game.

They start up one street, look around, scratch their heads and traipse back to the hotel. They try another street. This one leads to the arena but once there, no one can find the player entrance.

“One-third of our lineup,” Arnold says, “and nobody knew where to go. None of us had been to Pittsburgh before.”

--A year ago, minutes before the trading deadline, the Sharks attempt to deal center Kelly Kisio to the Chicago Blackhawks for “future considerations.” The Sharks are in Chicago that night, Kisio has already visited his future teammates in the Blackhawk dressing room, but the fax line to the league office is busy. The Sharks keep dialing. Still busy.

Deadline passes and the trade is voided. Kisio returns to San Jose and a year later, he is an all-star, the Sharks’ best player, leading the team with 25 goals and 76 points.

“Woody, how many games would we have won without Kisio this year?” Arnold asks trainer Tom Woodcock.

Woodcock doesn’t even look up.

“Three,” he replies.

Kisio half-smiles and half-grimaces when asked about his twist with fate. If the league adds another fax line, Kisio today contends for the Stanley Cup instead of the Daigle Cup, named for the No. 1 draft choice that will go to the league’s losingest franchise, world-class forward Alexandre Daigle.

“Yeah, I was disappointed,” Kisio says. “I would have been in the Stanley Cup finals last year.

“But things probably turned out for the best. They have two or three good centers in Chicago, so my playing time would’ve been down compared to here. From a personal standpoint, it would’ve hurt me in the long run, I guess.”

Last month, Kisio was given another chance to get out. Again, just before the trading deadline, San Jose management asked Kisio if he wanted to be dealt to a contender.

Somewhat incredibly, Kisio said he would not.

“I’d rather stay and play the string out here,” Kisio explains. “I want to see if I can help to right the footing here, to see us play better hockey than this. I want to be there when this team is a playoff contender, maybe two or three more years, I would think.”

Hackett, who was the Sharks’ most valuable player in their inaugural season, doesn’t know if he can wait that long. As it is, he barely made it to April ’93.

“I had 11 wins last year. This year I have two,” Hackett says, incredulous at the idea.

“If you told me before the season that I’d have two wins with one week left to play, you would’ve had to hide my ties from me. I’d have hung myself.”

Suicidal goaltenders.

Rookies without a clue.

Winless months, pointless trips, hopeless seasons.

Expansion hockey--coming soon, to an arena near you.