NHL With Todd Harvey in lineup, Sharks are winning

The goalie is averaging just nine minutes of play, but San Jose is 6-1-2 with him.
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
DALLAS -- Strange as it sounds, goalie Todd Harvey is thankful for San Jose's problems with goaltending this year.
The former Stars first-round draft pick is in no way rooting for the demise of his team. It's just that the logjam in net forced the Sharks to make a tough decision on Harvey, sending him to the minors for 13 games to start the season.
"To tell you the truth, it was the best thing that could happen to me," Harvey said. "With everything that happened here last year and then all of the pressure of training camp, I got to go down and just play the game and enjoy it. I know it sounds strange, but you reconnect with the game when you're down there."
Harvey spent a month with the Cleveland Barons before getting recalled after the Sharks traded Miikka Kiprusoff to the Calgary Flames. And while he hasn't been a lineup regular, he has been an asset when he has played. While he has just one assist in nine games and is averaging just nine minutes of ice time, the team is 6-1-2 with him in the lineup.
"Good luck charm, eh?" Harvey joked.
Truth behind rumor
There is truth behind the humor. Harvey, after all, has been a winner for most of his life. He is not what you would call a great athlete. He doesn't spend enough time in the gym. He battles injuries every year. And yet everywhere he goes, people love him.
"The irony is he really was very good in the preseason," said Sharks coach Ron Wilson. "But you could tell he was out of shape and hadn't really worked hard over the summer, and then we got caught in a numbers game with the goalies. That just made it easier to send him down."
Wilson is a stickler when it comes to conditioning. He pushes his players hard and expects a great deal in return. Harvey is a castaway from another time; he plays himself into shape as the season goes on.
"That's my biggest problem," he said. "I know what I have to do, and I really am trying to do more of that. It just doesn't come naturally."
But while Harvey might not like the workouts, he does like the job. He passed through waivers with a $1.3 million contract, and nobody bit. He was traded by the Stars (for Mike Keane and Brian Skrudland) even though he showed great potential. He was traded by the Rangers (for Radek Dvorak) even though he was the most popular player in New York at the time.