"Reech"-ing for the Top?

Give Carl Steward credit for his persuasive writing skills. After reading the piece he wrote yesterday for the Monterey County Herald, I totally want Mike Ricci to be the next head coach of the Sharks.

Steward gives good treatment to the various cons of this admittedly somewhat wacky notion--Ricci has never coached before, and his playing career is barely over--but I find many of the pros compelling. Do we really want to pluck a tired old retread--Paul Maurice, say, or Bob Hartley--off the NHL coaching carousel? If the Los Angeles Kings had waited until this moment to stupidly fire Andy Murray, he would've been worth snagging, but, alas, he's behind the bench in St. Louis. No one else in the ranks of the recently-dismissed gets me excited. The thought of Joel Quenneville coaching the Sharks next year is positively disheartening.

If Doug Wilson does get a Random Veteran NHL Coach to pilot his team, this would mean that firing Ron Wilson was merely a move to shake things up...nothing new is introduced to the system. Hell, you might as well hire Wilson back. To really change the game, the Sharks have to go a different direction. The team has plenty of talent, and I don't think further X-and-O-type line-juggling alchemy is what's needed, either. The team doesn't need someone to explain hockey to them...they need someone who will instill in them the remorseless killer instinct and I'll-skate-through-molten-lava-to-get-the-job-done attitude that it takes to be successful in the playoffs, and that they lacked so lamentably often this season.

Ricci could be the man for the job. He was a cornerstone of the team as it moved from mediocre to respectable to its current status of perennial contender. He has a face filled with hockey character, that has stopped a thousand pucks and fists and elbows. When Ricci's line was playing well it wore down opponents with a relentless forecheck. He's a tough guy in the very best sense of the term.

I hope Doug Wilson read Carl Steward's article...