Marleau looks ahead

Despite rough postseason debut in 2000, he's at center of Sharks' playoff plans

When the Sharks upset the St. Louis Blues in the 2000 playoffs, Patrick Marleau spent six of the seven games wearing street clothes. In the one game he did play, he ended up wearing goat horns.

Tonight, when the teams renew their playoff rivalry, Marleau will be wearing the ``C'' as team captain.

``It's definitely a different situation now,'' said Marleau, 24, an All-Star and the team's leading scorer this season. ``I was a younger guy then. Darryl liked going with veterans and stuff like that.''

Darryl Sutter, the Sharks coach in 2000, had no qualms about benching Marleau while raving in the next breath how great the young center would be in the long run.

The Sharks won without Marleau in 2000 largely because Owen Nolan dominated.

Can the Sharks prevail over the Blues again if Marleau is a non-factor? The Sharks' depth this season suggests they can.

But they would feel much more comfortable if they knew Marleau was going to snap out of the goal-scoring drought that dogged him the last quarter of the season.

``It's going to be important for Patty to play well in the playoffs for us to be successful,'' Coach Ron Wilson said.

``It takes some of the burden off other people. But on the other hand, all season long it has switched around and there's nothing wrong with that. We're balanced. I'd like to think we're kind of a tough team to check. There could be scoring coming at you from anywhere.''

In 2000, a lineup shuffle put Marleau out of the mix.

Dave Lowry was elevated to the first line with Nolan and Vincent Damphousse so he could menace and lure St. Louis star defenseman Chris Pronger out of his game.

Marco Sturm had moved to a center position and, with Mike Ricci and Ron Sutter working the middle on the remaining two lines, the only option for Marleau was to play as a wing. But Sutter opted to go with Alexander Korolyuk over Marleau.

Marleau was a late addition to the lineup in Game 1 when Jeff Friesen became ill. Marleau missed two defensive assignments that led to Blues goals in a 5-3 victory for St. Louis. He didn't play again that series.

``That's one of the toughest things, to be told you can't play,'' Marleau said, calling that series the low point of his seven-year NHL career.

Bob Berry, a member of Sutter's 2000 coaching staff and now a scout for St. Louis, said: ``I don't think anyone ever doubted Patty would be a great player. He does everything with such ease: skate, pass or shoot. He's a young guy who's gotten better every year.''

This was the first season that Marleau was clearly the primary offensive weapon for the Sharks. No more Nolan. No more Teemu Selanne. A lesser role for Damphousse and Ricci.

Marleau posted his 27th goal on Feb. 27 but added only one more in the final 18 games. Sturm went down with his gruesome leg injury March 5, and Marleau agreed that losing his linemate took some zip out of his offensive game.

``Definitely, we were going pretty good there for 10 to 15 games,'' Marleau said. ``When he goes down, you have to get used to different linemates. But you have to work your way out of it.''

Marleau showed signs of shaking loose in the regular-season finale against Los Angeles. He skated with more vigor, and Kings goalie Roman Cechmanek foiled him on a couple of plump chances.

``I know he's struggled lately scoring,'' Berry said. ``But just watching this game, he's dangerous every time he touches the puck. I hope I didn't just jinx us.''

Wilson had a chat with Marleau the day before the Kings game.

``We talked just about being focused,'' said Wilson, who noticed more ``jump'' in Marleau's game that day. ``We've had a couple of guys who haven't scored in a while and it weighs on them. Well, now you've got to let go of that.

``You've got to play that game like a playoff game. Forget about what you haven't done. OK, you're worrying you haven't scored in 17 games? How many did we lose? So what are we talking about here?''

Marleau rebounded from the disappointment of the 2000 series to score two goals against the Blues in 2001.

Then in 2002 he led the Sharks with three goals in their opening-round victory over Phoenix and bagged the winning goal twice in the Sharks' seven-game loss to Colorado in the conference semifinals.

``Hopefully I can pick up in the playoffs where I left off two years ago,'' he said.

But unlike two or four years ago, the expectations for Marleau are much greater. The long run Sutter spoke of then is right now.