THE NHL / HELENE ELLIOTT : Sharks’ Teeth No Longer as Sharp

Despite a series of trades that should have helped them overcome a 0-7-4 start, the San Jose Sharks rank next-to-last in the NHL. General Manager Dean Lombardi debates whether to stay with a group of promising but erratic youngsters or jolt the team by making more deals, and a month ago, he had to act against his own wishes and fire Coach Kevin Constantine.

Lombardi remains committed to building through the draft, but he wonders if fans will remain patient. They’ve filled the San Jose Arena for 62 consecutive games, but they’re flooding local radio shows with calls for his head.

“Otherwise,” Lombardi said, “I’ve been miserable.”

The Sharks were the darlings of the NHL in the spring of 1994, when they upset the Detroit Red Wings in the first round of the playoffs and took the Toronto Maple Leafs to seven games in the next round. Even last spring, they dumped the Calgary Flames before being swept by the revamped Red Wings.

But in Year 5, the Sharks regressed. Goaltender Arturs Irbe’s decline following two hand operations, horrible defensive play and an uninspired offense had them foundering. Firing Constantine “wasn’t something I wanted to do at all. I would certainly like to have held on,” Lombardi said. “There are a lot of things going on behind the scenes.” He denied being pressured by owners George and Gordon Gund but added, “Like anything else, you have to answer for your actions.”

According to Lombardi, the Sharks are facing high expectations for the first time. If that’s true, their response is hardly encouraging.

“We had a nice run here, but I don’t think as hockey people we were kidding ourselves,” Lombardi said. “We were a team that had no pressure. We were coming off an 11-win season [1992-93]. We had a lot of veterans and a great goalie who bailed us out. We played Detroit, which was ripe for an upset. What’s pressure? Fearing failure? There was no pressure because there were no expectations. . . .

“If you look at it strictly as a hockey person, there’s no question you ride it out with your players. You get calls from [GMs] who are willing to take two or three of your young players, and you don’t want to do that. But kids make mistakes and if you ride it out, fans get mad. As a GM you know what you should do, but you have to do something to sell your building, which is different than building a champion.”

The woes faced by the Sharks--and the third-year Mighty Ducks--are typical of expansion teams. “The team that messes us all up is Florida,” Lombardi said of the Panthers, who stand second in the East in only their third season. The Panthers have strong defense and goaltending, but their chief edge is in character players, modest scorers whose work ethic inspires their teammates. “The Brian Skrudlunds, the Mike Houghs, the Jody Hulls,” Lombardi said.

Lombardi had character players in Bob Errey and Igor Larionov but traded them. The playmaking of Craig Janney and the goal-scoring of Owen Nolan won’t make up for those losses.

NEVER SAY NEVER

So much for Alexei Yashin’s vow that he’d never play for the Ottawa Senators again. “Never” lasted until Randy Sexton was fired as general manager and Yashin got a huge raise out of Pierre Gauthier, the new general manager.

Yashin, who caused an international flap when he played for the Russian Red Army team in violation of his NHL contract, was in the third year of a five-year, $4.2-million deal. He will get a pro-rated portion of the $820,000 he was to earn this season under his old deal, and his new four-year, $12-million contract will begin next season.

The Senators caved in because they won’t get anywhere without him and because they wanted to show Bryan Berard, the first pick overall in the 1995 year’s draft, they’re serious about spending money to build a winner. Berard refused to sign with Ottawa and rejoined his junior team.

RED WING OF A DIFFERENT COLOR

After watching Detroit forward Doug Brown skate with Larionov, Sergei Fedorov or Viacheslav Kozlov, you’d think he grew up playing with them on a frozen Russian lake.

When the Red Wings need a substitute on their all-Russian line, they turn to Brown. He filled in admirably last month when Fedorov was injured, and he replaced Larionov Sunday without missing a step, scoring a goal in Detroit’s 3-2 victory over Hartford.

But when he speaks, his accent proves he’s from Boston. How can a kid from Southborough, Mass., play a high-speed, precision-passing game so well?

“When I was growing up, I had a youth coach who watched the Europeans play a lot and we used to watch the Russians in the Canada Cup and Super Series and admire their style,” Brown said. “I had the same center for nine years, and we were both small in size, so we figured a puck-control style would suit us because if we gave the puck away, it would be so hard to get it back.

“I have a lot of fun trying to keep up with them. I love watching them play that style and I enjoy trying to play it.”

SAVING THE PANTHERS

Florida Panther owner Wayne Huizenga, who put the club up for sale, said he will give Broward County (where Fort Lauderdale is located) $25 million if the county commission votes by Feb. 1 to approve the building of a new arena.

The commission hired an advisor to study two potential sites, both north of the team’s current home in Miami. Huizenga has reportedly gotten three offers from groups that would move the Panthers out of Florida, but said he will give first consideration to local buyers.

YOUNGER THAN SPRINGTIME

When 28-year-old Paul Maurice took over as coach of the Hartford Whalers, a cartoon in the Hartford Courant made fun of his youthful appearance. After two months behind the bench, with dark circles under his eyes and a perpetually worried expression, he looks 20 years older.

No wonder he’s aging rapidly. He’s 6-15-4 since he replaced Paul Holmgren and has a mercurial, underachieving team. Winger Jocelyn Lemieux whined until he was traded in a three-way deal that brought defenseman Jeff Brown to Hartford, and Brendan Shanahan was ineffective in the early going because of a wrist injury. Left wing Geoff Sanderson, who averaged a goal every two games the last three seasons (105 goals in 210 games), has only 13 in 36 games.

SLAP SHOTS

Officials of the NHL and the International Ice Hockey Federation met to discuss the Russian Federation’s complaint about NHL teams that send young Russians to the minors. If the players don’t stick with NHL clubs, the Russian federation wants them sent home. . . . Chicago center Bernie Nicholls, who was sidelined for 23 games because of a bruised spleen, has a goal and an assist in two games back. . . . Ranger defenseman Ulf Samuelsson is out two weeks after surgery to remove bone chips from his left elbow. It’s his second operation on that elbow. . . . Former King Jimmy Carson signed with the Swiss team HC Lausanne.

Chicago defenseman Gary Suter has nine points in his last three games. . . . The return of Winnipeg goalie Nikolai Khabibulin from a knee injury has been delayed until mid-January. . . . Don’t blame Montreal players for avoiding teammate Donald Brashear. He has inadvertently injured two teammates and two coaches in practice mishaps, with assistant coach Yvan Cournoyer his latest victim. . . . The starting lineups for Eastern Conference all-stars will be announced Wednesday and the West on Thursday. The East reserves will be announced next Monday and the West next Tuesday. Reserves are chosen by the league after consulting with general managers. The game is Jan. 20 at Boston’s new FleetCenter.