Ehrhoff flying high with San Jose Sharks

Originally published in Eishockey News in 2007

By Lucas Aykroyd

Did Accept’s 1982 speed-metal anthem “Fast As A Shark” point to the future exploits of Christian Ehrhoff, who was born in that year? Probably not, but the fact remains that the third-year NHLer has gained respect with San Jose as one of the world’s fastest-skating defensemen.

However, Ehrhoff is less excited about his career-best numbers and chance to break Uwe Krupp’s 1991 record for most goals in one season by a German blueliner (12) than about his club’s improved play in January after a lackluster December.

“I’d say the game in Phoenix [on December 30] when we embarrassed ourselves with an 8-0 loss and we didn’t really compete was a turning point,” said Ehrhoff. “We had a couple of meetings and talked among ourselves about how we had to turn it around. Since then, we’ve played pretty well every game.”

The Sharks are vying with New Jersey for the NHL’s lowest overall goals-against, and according to Ehrhoff, that’s not a statistic that goes unnoticed in the team’s dressing room: “Definitely we take a lot of pride in our defense. We’ve got the forwards helping out a lot, coming back hard. We try to outman the opposition in our zone and work hard. We’ve got two great goalies back there as well.”

So far in 2006-07, Vesa Toskala and Evgeni Nabokov have posted virtually identical save percentages and goals-against averages, even though Toskala has won almost twice as many games. But Ehrhoff insists that the Sharks defensemen have confidence in both their Russian netminder, who will earn $5.3 million this year, and his less well-paid Finnish colleague: “For us, it doesn’t really make a difference who’s in the net. We work hard for both goalies, and in practice, we work on handling the puck together.”

The 188-cm, 91-kg Moers native has also had to adjust to a variety of younger defense partners. For instance, at various times in a 3-1 loss to Vancouver on January 28, Ehrhoff played alongside 23-year-old Josh Gorges at even strength, 22-year-old Matt Carle on the power play, and 19-year-old Marc-Edouard Vlasic on the penalty kill.

“Being one of the guys with the most experience, I try to take advantage of that and be positive out there,” said Ehrhoff. “Hopefully I play a lot of minutes and the coaches have confidence in me. As long as we’re winning, that is the main thing.”

With the Stanley Cup-contending Sharks, Ehrhoff has certainly experienced more winning under Ron Wilson than he did with former national team coach Hans Zach, even though the latter brought Germany its most sustained success in international hockey during his six-year reign. What are the main differences between two of hockey’s best-known defensive-minded coaches?
“It’s tough to compare, because we play such a different style of hockey over here,” said Ehrhoff. “When I had Hans Zach with the national team, we always had to play defensively because most of the other teams had better skills than us. Here, we have one of the best skilled teams in the NHL. That changes the approach for the coaches. I think both Zach and Wilson have done good jobs.”

Another positive for Ehrhoff this year has been regaining #10, his traditional jersey number: “I always wore 10. I started wearing it when I began playing hockey at age six. I had it in Krefeld, on the national team, and with the Cleveland Barons. I didn’t have the chance to wear it with the Sharks initially because Marcus Ragnarsson had it, as well as Alyn McCauley. So when Alyn left, I took the opportunity.”

Judging by numbers alone, San Jose’s chances of going deep into the playoffs are excellent. But Ehrhoff knows the team can’t get complacent: “I think we still can get better. We’ve improved a lot since that 8-0 loss. We’ve played pretty good hockey in our last few games, and we can be happy about that. But still, we want to build on that and have good momentum going into the playoffs, because it’ll be a lot harder there.”

Both Ehrhoff and teammate Marcel Goc, who recently returned from a back injury, are fans of actress Scarlett Johansson. Do they have a better chance of meeting her or winning the Stanley Cup this year? “Probably winning the Stanley Cup,” Ehrhoff said with a smile. That’s the kind of heavy metal that interests him most.