THE NHL / ROBYN NORWOOD : Shark Goalie No Longer ‘Like Wall,’ More ‘Like Sieve’

Arturs Irbe was not “like wall” last week.

Not unless it was the Berlin Wall--in its current state--or a brick wall after a 7.0 quake.

Irbe was spectacular last season, and the Latvian goaltender’s trademark quote--”I was like wall”--delighted San Jose Shark fans so much that they hung banners that simply said, “Like Wall.”

He was one of the biggest reasons the Sharks upset the top-seeded Detroit Red Wings in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs before losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games--nearly winning the series when Johan Garpenlov hit the crossbar in overtime of Game 6.

The Sharks (5-4-2) began this delayed season bent on proving their playoff run was no fluke. The fourth-year team was in first place in the Pacific Division after a 5-1-1 start and Irbe had a 1.98 goals-against average.

But last week he was pulled in consecutive games, a 7-3 loss at Toronto that was followed by a 6-0 pummeling at Detroit--and isn’t it interesting it was those two teams?

Then last Friday, Irbe made the most embarrassing goalie gaffe of the young season in a 5-1 loss at Edmonton.

He tried to clear the puck during a Shark power play in the final moments of the second period. Instead, he threw the puck onto the right leg of teammate Igor Larionov, banking it into his own net for a shorthanded and ultimately game-winning goal for the Oilers.

“It’s easy,” Irbe said afterward. “Three words: I lost game. I made huge mistake.”

Larionov, 34, called it a nightmare.

“When I was 14, I had an own-net goal,” he said. “But that was the last time. That was 20 years ago.”

Coach Kevin Constantine went with Wade Flaherty in a 1-1 tie at Vancouver on Saturday but he couldn’t bring himself to shred Irbe.

“It’s tough to get disappointed in your best player,” he said. “He’s been too good for us to get too critical of him now.”

Goaltending and diligent defense are important for the Sharks, who had one flashy line last season, Larionov and Sergei Makarov--two-thirds of the famous old Soviet KLM line--along with Garpenlov, a Swede.

But Larionov has yet to score a goal this season--or at least he hasn’t knocked a puck into the other team’s net--and Garpenlov has been sidelined because of a groin strain.

“We have been for over a year a team that needs good goaltending and tight games,” Constantine said. “Most of our wins are close scores. The things that have disappointed me are our goaltending, which hasn’t been great, and our penalty killing. Those are the very things that we need.”

MAN BUYS DOG

Irbe has a new dog, a Great Pyrenees named Reno that is already 60 pounds at four months. This would not be news, except that his last dog, Rambo, a Newfoundland-Labrador mix, attacked him last summer in Latvia, severing an artery in his left wrist and breaking the middle finger on his right hand.

He recovered from those injuries, which aren’t believed to be related to his current slump, and Irbe says he is fine--certainly fine enough to have bought a new dog.

FROM FLYER TO FLYING FRENCHMAN

The Montreal Canadiens have had only one 100-point scorer since Guy Lafleur, Mats Naslund in 1986, but they acquired the man who should be the next one when they traded for Mark Recchi of the Philadelphia Flyers last week.

The Canadiens have a defensive tradition, but there are still too many fans of Les Habitants who remember the days of Lafleur and the Flying Frenchmen to settle for a team that was averaging 2.77 goals a game--and worse than that, was in fifth place in the Northeast Division, three spots below the hated Quebec Nordiques.

It cost Montreal plenty to get Recchi--three established players 25 or younger who all played key roles in the Stanley Cup run two seasons ago--but Recchi, 27, a sniper who has averaged 44 goals and 110 points the last four seasons, would seem to be worth it.

He’s also one of only four players in the NHL who have scored 100 points in each of the last two seasons. Doug Gilmour, Adam Oates and Pavel Bure are the others.

THE KINGS SHOULD KNOW THESE GUYS

Fans in Los Angeles probably think more of the three key players sent to the Flyers--defenseman Eric Desjardins and forwards John LeClair and Gilbert Dionne--than fans in Montreal. Their performances in the 1993 Stanley Cup finals are burned in the minds of King fans.

Desjardins, 25, is a solid defensive player who was probably the key to the deal for the Flyers.

Desjardins had the hat trick that killed the Kings in Game 2. His third goal of the game was the overtime winner for Montreal.

LeClair, 25, is a 6-foot-2, 219-pound center who hasn’t blossomed into the physical player Montreal hoped he would become. But to King fans, he’s the guy who beat them with overtime winners in Games 3 and 4.

And Dionne? King fans know the name, of course, but the younger brother of Marcel was a goner in Montreal after he compared his teammates’ play to chickens with their heads cut off. At 24, he has never had more than 50 points in a season, but he did have six goals and four assists during the 1993 playoffs.

The guy who has to hate one aspect of the deal is LeClair, who Dionne once said “has nine lives” because he kept playing ahead of him.

They’re still teammates.

HITMAN AND FLEA HAVE GONE SOFT?

The Calgary Hitmen are a Canadian junior team owned in part by professional wrestler Bret (the Hitman) Hart and Theoren Fleury, the Calgary Flames’ pint-sized but pugnacious right wing.

But the Hitmen bowed to pressure last week and dumped a three-month-old logo that--like Hart and Fleury--was criticized for being too violent. The design featured a hockey player whose face was a cross between a skull and the Terminator, carrying his blade shoulder-high with both hands on the stick, ready to deliver a cross-check.

The team plays in the Olympic Saddledome and adhered to the desires of its co-tenants.

“The Flames were of two opinions on this,” said Graham James, general manager of the Hitmen. “I think some of them didn’t like it, and some of them hated it.”

SLAP SHOTS

The Pittsburgh Penguins are 10-0-1 and can tie the NHL record for a season-opening unbeaten streak if they win or tie their next four games. Edmonton set the record of 15 games without a loss to start the season in 1984-85. . . . Game On Already: Enough with the NHL’s lame “re-entry marketing effort,” a play on a scene from the movie “Wayne’s World.” The “Game On!” slogan comes off as an attempt to make it seem as if the games were called off by world war or act of God, not Commissioner Gary Bettman and the Board of Governors.

Post-lockout attendance is getting worse, not better, in some cities. Wednesday, Edmonton drew 10,308--the smallest crowd there since the Oilers joined the NHL 16 years ago--for a game against Winnipeg. The same night, Hartford drew 8,032. Thursday, Vancouver had only 10,630. . . . The Flames would trip over a crutch. They have 10 injured players, and perhaps the most worrisome injury is to veteran winger Gary Roberts, who has nerve damage in his right shoulder and might need extended time off. “I can’t go on like this,” said Roberts, who wants to be 100% before returning.