A while back an avid poster, Sharks_12, asked for thoughts on Larry Robinson’s tenure and I let it slip my mind for too long – so here it is.
Robinson was brought in with hopes of shoring up a strong defensive system that gone by the wayside for the three years prior to his hire. The 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 Sharks were dominant in their own zone. They relied heavily on a quality defensive system – that included forwards – to make up for the average goaltending they’ve had for a very long time.
After the 08-09 season the defense was penetrated significantly more in shots against and in scoring chances against. Can it be attributed to personnel change? Perhaps, but, generally, there was a small turnover in relation to talent vs talent if you go through the rosters.
The biggest issue in the last eight seasons seems to be the loss of Christian Ehrhoff – a player that, conveniently, the Sharks have a chance to bring back this year – albeit significantly aged.
After Ehrhoff left, the Sharks shots against per 60 and scoring chances against per 60 took a huge jump in the wrong direction – and they’re still trying to recover from that.
For Ehrhoff tire-pumping purposes, he out-performed in his role in every single season since leaving the Sharks except for this past year with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was missed in San Jose, there’s no question about it. He made every single defender he played with in San Jose(min 200 TOI) from 2007-2009 better.
When Robinson came aboard the Sharks saw a steady trend in the right direction for SA60 and SCA60 for the first two seasons. This past year, Robinson’s third, the trend went sour. That I would definitely attribute to personnel.
This year Robinson was handed a transitioning Brent Burns, a 19 year old rookie and an aging misfit in Scott Hannan – not to mention a disastrous bottom six group up front. San Jose was doomed to regress defensively.
Is that Robinson’s fault? I’d give him a pass. Between, possibly, one of the most questionable defensive groups in the last several years for the Sharks and Todd McLellan’s incessant line shuffling it was hard to gain any consistency. This year was a project – a failed project. It's also worth noting that Robinson had Director of Player Development attached to his name for the 14/15 season. Was having additional priorities a contributing factor to the decline on the blueline?
I think that Robinson did an alright job with the Sharks defensive group and that this year was a write-off. Ultimately, with his reassignment within the organization, it doesn’t matter anymore. However, the Sharks will be expected to trend back toward the level that Robinson had them at for the 2013-2014 season. If they don’t, then Robinson’s value behind the bench only increases.
For now, in my opinion, we can look at Robinson as a small success, but nothing truly spectacular. He had the team trending well until the 2014-2015 circus came to town.
Thanks for reading.