Ron Wilson still has that first-year magic touch.
Wilson, who led Anaheim to an expansion-record 33 victories in his NHL coaching debut in 1994 and who coaxed Washington to its only Stanley Cup Finals during his first season in 1998, has guided San Jose to its first Western Conference final in his first full season with the Sharks.
“It’s gratifying, but if you’re a good coach you will have a major impact on a team that was underachieving the year before,” said Wilson, whose second-seeded Sharks open the best-of-7 series at home Sunday against sixth-seeded Calgary.
Wilson certainly has had an impact in San Jose. Hired to replace Darryl Sutter — ironically now coaching the Flames — on Dec.4, 2002, Wilson didn’t produce much change the rest of that season as San Jose finished 14th of 15 Western teams after winning the Pacific Division the previous year. However, Wilson’s system based on speed and puck possession clicked in last December, and the young Sharks have been the NHL’s top team since.
San Jose wound up with a franchise-record 104 points and needed five playoff games to send St. Louis packing and six to oust perennial contender Colorado while holding the powerful Avalanche to seven goals. But that shouldn’t have been a shock since the Sharks were fourth in the NHL in defense this season.
“Ron’s very good at designing the perfect system for the talent he has and then implementing it,” said Capitals general manager George McPhee, who worked with Wilson in Vancouver and then hired and fired him in Washington. “Ron also has excellent instincts on the bench. He can think on his feet and come up with right matchups.”
Wilson, whose tongue can be as sharp as any in sports, hasn’t exactly mellowed as evidenced by his bragging about his record against the teams that have fired him.
“Ron’s a smart, very creative guy with a great sense of humor,” McPhee said. “He brings a fresh approach that players respond to. Does it wear out after awhile? I can’t say that, but the players stopped listening to him and he stopped listening to them.”
Wilson, who was canned by the Mighty Ducks less than a month after leading them to their first playoff series victory in 1997 and by the Caps in 2002 after four winning seasons and three playoff berths in five years, said he’s not the same guy who clashed with such offensive-minded players as Peter Bondra, Adam Oates and Jaromir Jagr in Washington.
“It’s interesting how people want to pigeonhole you,” said Wilson, 48. “You always evolve as a coach. Some of us are lucky enough to get it right the first time. With some of us, it takes time before you figure out everything. I’m still learning every day. Experience counts a lot. It enables you to be a little calmer in difficult situations. Maybe you’re not as susceptible to external pressure and to the pressure you put on yourself.”
Wilson, who led the United States to victory in the 1996 World Cup but had a disastrous experience coaching the U.S. Olympic team in 1998, isn’t feeling that much pressure in San Jose. The Sharks are favored to beat the Flames and reach the finals, but with four players in their 30s and a payroll well under $40million, there’s not the win-or-else pressure that was facing such now-eliminated teams as Detroit and Toronto.
“This team is better than [the Caps’ 1998 finalists], a lot deeper and more youthful,” Wilson said. “In Washington, that was probably our best chance to win the Cup. We knew we would have to retool in two years. Here we have a very bright future because we’re a young team. We’re low-paid because we’re young not because we don’t have good players.”
Veteran forwards Vincent Damphousse (Montreal, 1993) and Mike Ricci (Colorado, 1996) have won Cups and Evgeni Nabokov was the league’s top rookie in 2001 and has twice finished fourth in the voting for the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goalie, but the Sharks don’t have a star to match Calgary’s Jarome Iginla or the dynamic scorers of Eastern Conference finalists Philadelphia and Tampa Bay. Center Patrick Marleau’s 56 team-high points were the second-fewest on a playoff qualifier. No.3 scorer Jonathan Cheechoo is better known as the first Moose Cree First Nations member to play in the NHL than for his skill.
“Coming in last year, [the players] had that look like they didn’t believe they had a chance,” Wilson said. “To see that evolve into a look of self-confidence, not just confidence in the team but the look that you’re a reliable player, that people trust you, that you can be part of something magical … it’s tremendous.”
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