He's one hungry Shark

Postseason failures whet Grier's appetite

(file/Marcio jose sanchez/associated press)

During his first two seasons in San Jose, Mike Grier felt the progression that has become, fair or not, the underachieving Sharks' identity.

They'd stock a fearsome roster. They'd roll through the regular season. Then they'd hiccup in the postseason and fall short of reaching the Stanley Cup - a goal, considering their talent, that has been a reasonable destination.

Grier is hoping that in 2008-09, the last season of his three-year contract, the revamped Sharks can shed their collective millstone and make some postseason noise.

"We've been a very good team in the regular season the last two years," said Grier. "But we've had our bumps and hit the wall in the playoffs, for some reason.

"We have playoff experience and now we've got some guys who have won Stanley Cups. Now maybe a little fresher approach or a different approach will help us get over the hump."

Last season, despite plucking slick defenseman Brian Campbell from Buffalo at the trade deadline, the Sharks were knocked out by Dallas in the Western Conference semifinals in six games. Less than a month later, coach Ron Wilson was fired and replaced by Detroit assistant Todd McLellan, an NHL head coach for the first time.

Under McLellan, who won the Cup with the Wings last season, the Sharks should become more of a go-go team (2.63 goals per game in 2007-08, 19th in the league), emphasizing the transition and puck-possession approach that Detroit perfected during its championship run.

To that end, the Sharks acquired puck-moving defenseman Dan Boyle, also a Cup winner, from Tampa Bay along with defenseman Brad Lukowich for defensemen Matt Carle and Ty Wishart, a 2009 first-round pick, and a 2010 fourth-round selection. Boyle, 32, is entering the first season of a six-year contract but is considered a premier offensive defenseman (4-21 -25 in only 37 games last year after suffering a freak wrist injury).

General manager Doug Wilson added a third Cup champion in Rob Blake, signing the thump-first defenseman to a one-year, $5 million contract. And last Wednesday, Wilson re-signed young blue liner Marc-Edouard Vlasic to a four-year, $12.4 million extension.

The theory goes that with a bolstered blue line intent on retrieving pucks and shuttling them up the ice, Grier and the rest of the San Jose forwards - Joe Thornton again leading the attack - should be in better position to put pressure on opponents and create high-percentage scoring chances.

"Everything I've heard is that we're going to play a good style," said Grier, the three-year Boston University star and St. Sebastian's grad. "We'll be aggressive and hopefully be creating a little more offense than last year. We had a little trouble creating things five-on-five. So we should be competitive in that regard."

In February, Grier suffered a knee injury that required surgery upon the conclusion of the season. He said his rehab is going well and he appeared to be moving without limitations during a wide-open five-on-five game involving local pros and ex-collegians last week at BU's Walter Brown Arena.

Grier, a defensive-minded winger (9-13 -22 in 78 games last season), averaged a team-high 3:26 of shorthanded ice time per game last season. He skated on an all-New England line with Torrey Mitchell (University of Vermont) and Patrick Rissmiller (Holy Cross). But Grier will need a new linemate this year, as Rissmiller signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Rangers.

Grier, who will earn $1.775 million this season, said he's had preliminary discussions with the Sharks about an extension. Grier, who was raised in Holliston and now resides in Hopkinton during the summer, said there's a good possibility he'll re-sign with San Jose. But the 33-year-old acknowledged that if he can't negotiate an extension (he's represented by local agent Jay Fee), he'd like to return to the East Coast.

The dream, however, would be to come back to Hopkinton next summer with a certain silver trophy in tow.

Right-hand man is right man
When Scott Gordon was hired by the Islanders to replace ousted coach Ted Nolan, there was a logical choice to take over the lead job in Providence that Gordon vacated: assistant coach Rob Murray.

" 'You do want the head coaching job, don't you?' " Murray recalled general manager Peter Chiarelli asking him. "I said, 'Oh, yeah, definitely.' The process started then.

"I wasn't expecting it to be handed to me. It was a process, but I liked to hope that it was a natural progression to be considered after five years as the assistant coach. It worked out great."

Murray, promoted to head coach Aug. 21, was first hired by ex-Boston GM Mike O'Connell in 2003 as an AHL assistant after completing his playing career in Springfield that year. Sean Coady, Boston's former director of pro scouting, knew Murray from their days in the Winnipeg organization and helped set up the interview.

Murray, who appeared in 1,018 AHL games (sixth most in league history), learned that standing behind the bench required a different perspective from skating on the ice.

"You start looking at the game a little differently," said Murray, who oversaw the Providence defense as Gordon's assistant. "It broadens your spectrum a lot. I was a centerman as a player, so especially working with defensemen, there are little nuances you never picked up on as a player."

Murray will take on the additional administrative duties required of a head coach - examples he gave were arranging the training camp schedule, fielding calls from agents looking for tryouts for their clients, and communicating with ECHL coaches when fill-in players are required - as he prepares for 2008-09.

Speak up
"He watches a lot of hockey, so he knows about Milan. We said we're going to set up a Lucic-Phaneuf fight. When we go to Calgary, Jarome said he's going to do his part to get Dion all fired up. We'll get Looch the same way. No problem."
- Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference, speaking of former Calgary teammate Jarome Iginla and joking about scheduling a Milan Lucic-Dion Phaneuf bout when the Bruins play the Flames Oct. 30.

By the numbers
21

Maximum number of days that a club acquiring a player via trade must provide that player with hotel accommodations.

21

Maximum number of days that a club acquiring a player via trade must reimburse that player for rental of a mid-size car.

3,200

Maximum dollars per month that a club acquiring a player via trade must reimburse that player for mortgage/rent expenses for up to six months.

The list
Brendan Shanahan, who is still hunting for NHL employment, leads all active players with 1,490 games played. Here are some of the players Shanahan skated with during his 20-year NHL career who have gone on to other hockey-related jobs:

Andy Brickley, analyst, NESN

Guy Carbonneau, coach, Montreal

Kevin Dineen, coach, Portland

Doug Houda, assistant coach, Boston

Brett Hull, co-general manager, Dallas

Al MacInnis, vice president of hockey operations, St. Louis

George McPhee, GM, Washington

Luc Robitaille, president, Los Angeles

Ulf Samuelsson, associate coach, Phoenix

Steve Yzerman, vice president, Detroit

Etc.
Junior mint: The Jacques Martin Era in Florida hasn't been all palm trees and cocktails, considering the Panthers have not qualified for the postseason while the ex-Ottawa coach has been in Sunrise. But Martin took a stride that appears to be pointed in the right direction by hiring ex-Gatineau (QMJHL) coach Benoit Groulx to take over the top job in Rochester, Florida's new AHL affiliate. Groulx, one of three candidates interviewed by the Bruins to fill the assistant job in Providence, led the Olympiques to the Memorial Cup last season. Groulx, David Krejci's coach in 2004-05, would have been behind the bench for Team Canada in the 2009 World Junior Tournament, which will be held in Ottawa, just over the river from Gatineau. "I followed him very closely," said Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli, who monitored Groulx while serving as Ottawa's assistant GM. "Guys really play hard for him. He demands a lot of his players. He's organized, emotional, and he's always gotten the most out of his players. He won a championship in the Quebec league with a team that a lot of people thought wasn't close to being the best team." Earlier this summer, Martin dipped into the junior ranks and hired former Kitchener coach Peter DeBoer as the Panthers head coach. Kitchener also advanced to the Memorial Cup last season.

Loose pucks: Although DeBoer left junior hockey behind, he's still invested, literally, in the OHL. Earlier this month, he and former Rangers star Adam Graves became part-owners of the Oshawa Generals, the OHL team that counts Bobby Orr among its alums. DeBoer and Graves are partners with principal owner Rocco Tullio, a real estate developer . . . As Red Sox fans were reminded last week with ailing pitcher Josh Beckett, there are three words seamheads never like to hear: Dr. James Andrews. The hockey equivalent might become Dr. Marc Philippon, a leading hip surgeon at the Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail, Colo. Hockey insiders fear that labrum injuries, especially for goalies, will rise. Philippon's former patients include the Islanders' Rick DiPietro and Minnesota's Marian Gaborik . . . The Bruins open the regular season with games against Colorado at the Pepsi Center (Denver) and against Minnesota at the Xcel Energy Center (St. Paul). Those were the venues of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. It's a good bet there'll be less cross-checking in the games than in the conventions.

Fight club: Think it pays to fight? Authors John P. Haisken-DeNew and Matthias Vorell have concluded that enforcers (wingers in particular) can help their teams win games and even earn themselves bigger paychecks. In "Blood Money: Incentives for Violence in NHL Hockey," published by Ruhr Economic Papers, the authors analyzed statistics between 1967 and 2007 (how far clubs advanced each season on the team side; games played, points, plus-minus ratings, fights won, fights lost on the player side) to determine the effect of fighting on team success and individual salaries. They concluded, through various formulas, that a greater number of fights can help teams advance to the Stanley Cup finals, but not necessarily win the championship. They also determined that a winger who wins a fight can earn a wage premium of $18,135, versus a premium of $11,993 for losing a bout. "There are substantial returns paid not only to goal scoring skills," write the authors, "but also to fighting ability, helping teams move higher in the playoffs and showing up as positive wage premia for certain players." The paper is available for download at www.rwi-essen.de.

Health is wealth: Martins Karsums, on the bubble for a big-league job as he enters his third year of pro hockey, proved last season that despite a rough-and-tumble style, he can make it through the pounding of AHL play. Karsums, limited to 54 games as an AHL rookie in 2005-06, appeared in all but one regular-season match for Providence last season. The only game Karsums (20-43 -63 while playing on the top line) missed was the regular-season finale, when he was instructed to sit in the stands because the Providence bosses didn't want him to get hurt heading into the playoffs. "He was really upset, because he had such trouble staying healthy the previous year," said Murray. "He really wanted to play that 80th game, because as a player, that's a feather in your cap. We told him, 'We feel for you, but we can't take a chance with something happening in that last game.' So really, last year was his rookie year. The year before, even when he was playing, he was hurt. He's really made great strides. If he's back with us, that's a top guy for us."

Right to play, wrong to check: The call from Mark Brender, deputy director of Right To Play, came to Andrew Ference earlier this summer, asking the Boston defenseman if he was interested in playing in a hockey game, organized by the Toronto International Film Festival, that would benefit the humanitarian organization. For Ference, who traveled to Tanzania in 2007 as a Right To Play athlete-ambassador, the answer came naturally. "I don't know that I'd necessarily participate if the money wasn't going to Right To Play. It's not really my scene," said Ference, who'll be skating alongside current and former NHLers (Joe Thornton, Jason Spezza, Robyn Regehr, Doug Gilmour, Luc Robitaille, and Wendel Clark are some of the players) and movie stars (Tim Robbins and Alan Thicke are among the celebrities) in the inaugural Festival Cup, which will take place Friday at Toronto's Air Canada Centre. "But it should be a lot of fun. I'm just as excited to see guys from other teams. It will be neat hooking up in noncompetitive situations with guys you're usually butting heads with. It should be fun. I'm really excited about Doug Gilmour, Robitaille, Wendel Clark, and some of the older alumni. Everybody's best friend Sean Avery will be there. It will be a pretty good collection of guys." All proceeds from the game will go to Right To Play (www.righttoplay.com). No truth to the rumor that an Avery vs. Robbins fight will go down.

Loose pucks: Murray recalled that in 1985-86, his second season of junior hockey, his Peterborough club rumbled through the regular season as one of the OHL's top clubs. They were aided in the playoffs when Randy Burridge, after playing out his rookie season with the Bruins (17-25 -42 in 52 NHL games), was returned to the Petes for the stretch run. But Belleville upset Peterborough in the second round of the OHL playoffs. "So devastating," said Murray, sounding as if the loss happened last week. "We were expected to win that year and we didn't." . . . Keep an eye out for "Black And Gold: Four Decades of the Boston Bruins in Photographs," a collection of images from team photographer Steve Babineau, with text written by former NESN reporter Rob Simpson. The book will be available in October for $34.95. A favorite shot: an open-mouthed Ray Bourque after the captain lost a row of Chiclets during the 1999-2000 season . . . Ryan Bourque, the Hall of Famer's youngest of three children, was named to the National Team Development Program's Under-18 roster for 2008-09 last week. Ryan, younger brother of Chris Bourque, has committed to the University of New Hampshire . . . Among the players Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli scouted during the US Junior Evaluation Camp earlier this month was defenseman Victor Hedman, a member of the Swedish squad that played against the Yanks at Lake Placid, N.Y. "Big, strong player," Chiarelli said of the 6-foot-5-inch, 200-pound Hedman. "A combination of [Chris ] Pronger and [Jay] Bouwmeester a little bit. He's a big, strong defenseman who can skate and push the puck up." Hedman is considered a top-five pick in the 2009 draft and could challenge Oshawa stud John Tavares as the No. 1 selection . . . Forward Martin St. Pierre, acquired by the Bruins from Chicago for forward Pascal Pelletier, will most likely land in Providence to start the season. "If he comes down to us, he's a player," Murray said of the center (21-67 -88 for Rockford last season). "I know that coaching against him, we were scared of him. He's a guy that is a game-changer any time he's on the ice." . . . Vancouver goalie Curtis Sanford (otherwise known as door-opener for Roberto Luongo) invited fans to submit designs for his 2008-09 mask. The contest is closed and the top 10 submissions are online at canucks.nhl.com. Sanford will choose the winner and debut the mask in training camp.

Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com; material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.