SAN JOSE -- Rumour has it there will be a remake of the TV series Land Of The Giants, set in the San Jose Sharks dressing room.
The biggest team in the National Hockey League -- average weight 216 pounds, average height 6-foot-2 -- quickly uses up the available space when they come stomping in en masse from a morning skate at the HP Pavilion.
"We're not a dominant team when we don't use our size," said 'Jumbo' Joe Thornton, at 6-4, 235, their top scorer with 49 points before last night's visit by the Leafs. "Hopefully, we're going to wear down the other team's defence as the night goes on. We hear a lot of teams come in here and leave here saying they have to get ready for our size."
Thornton is joined by 6-4 winger Patrick Rissmiller and 6-4 defenceman Kyle McLaren as the biggest active Sharks. Defencemen Brad Norton (6-4) and Alexei Semenov (6-6) are on injured reserve.
"We thought we were really big until a bunch of the San Francisco 49ers came through on a visit a few days ago," Thornton said with a laugh. "We're about size, but we're also about speed."
BIG SMALL MEN
The two smallest Sharks are centre Joe Pavelski and defenceman Torrey Mitchell, both 5-11, but between 190 and 200 pounds. Needless to say, Pavelski is afforded a certain amount of freedom when he's on the ice with two heavy-set wingers.
"It's fun," he said.
But coach Ron Wilson said the Sharks don't want to use their height advantage recklessly. He pointed to a team such as the Cup champion Anaheim Ducks, who are close in stature to the Sharks and have taken the extra step to a title.
"We're not about rock-em, sock-em hockey," Wilson said. "But we wear down teams, physically. And when your best player is also your biggest player (Thornton), other teams notice that."
The Sharks' size factor has also allowed goaltender Evgeni Nabokov to go about his 43 consective starts largely unperturbed. He is now one appearance shy of tying Martin Brodeur's mark for active goalies, 44 straight starts during the 1996-97 season.
