Former Chiefs Seek To Excel With San Jose

Falloon and Whitney.

The names entwined with the talent are inseparable pieces of the local hockey high.

The Spokane Chiefs were struggling when Pat Falloon and Ray Whitney showed up in the fall of 1988.

By the time they left, Whitney was the club’s all-time leading point producer and Falloon its career leader in goals. Spokane had a junior hockey championship and the sellout mentality that winners spark.

Falloon and Whitney.

They didn’t build the arena they inaugurated Sunday night but they accelerated the need for it. The popularity of the Spokane Chiefs, prime tenant of the new building, took off in the years that they were the prime attractions.

They carried the act - Fallon on the right wing, Whitney in the middle - from Spokane to San Jose, from the local to the national.

Their friendship kept pace with their careers.

“It’s sickening,” Whitney said, smiling. “We’re Frick and Frack. After eight years as a teammate he’s more like a second brother to me.”

Like brothers they’ve plotted together.

“In our second year (in Spokane) I didn’t realistically think I was going to get drafted,” Whitney said. “Patty said, ‘We’ve got expansion. Maybe we’ll both go to that team.’ “

That team happened to be the San Jose Sharks, and although it didn’t happen right away that’s where they wound up.

“Patty came off the farm at 16, at 180-190 pounds,” Whitney said. “He’s always had those big arms and big legs. He looks the same to me as he did when he was 16.”

Appearance isn’t the only constant in Falloon’s career.

He’s still living with soaring expectations, less than a week away from his 23rd birthday.

“I have noticed that he worked a little harder this summer,” Whitney said. “He came down to San Jose and worked out a month with us before training camp. He’d never done that before.

“I think he really felt he needed improvement. I was pretty proud of the way he came down and worked hard. He’s definitely in better shape than he’s ever been this early in the season.

“That’s made the management happy, that he’s showed a little bit of a commitment to his game and his off-ice training.”

Falloon, typically, low-keys the effort.

“As you get older you have to work harder,” he said. “Conditioning anyway. I’m not going around bragging about how hard I’ve worked. I’ve put in some time. certainly.”

Falloon hasn’t shed the under-stated class that came with him from the farm in Foxwarren, Manitoba. Inquire about the reports on him - that he’s an under-achiever - and he tries not to wince.

“I hate to see it in any kind of writing, for sure,” Falloon said. “Under-achiever is a pretty strong word. I try not to think of that. What I’ve done… I’ve done fairly well.

“I wouldn’t say I was totally pleased with my first four years in the league as far as production goes but I think as a player I’ve improved in a lot of areas of my game. That’s what I have to stay focused on. The more I look at somebody saying I’m an underachiever, the more down I’m going to get.”

As the No. 2 pick in the ‘91 entry draft Falloon concedes that “the pressure’s always there.

“It’s a challenge every time you go out on the ice, to face the critics and try and prove them wrong,” he said.

This homecoming was special, he said.

“It’s exciting to come back here. This city was just fantastic to me. Moving halfway across the country to play junior hockey at a place you’ve never known before, at 15 years of age, was certainly an adjustment. But everybody here took us in. I was very fortunate to get the opportunity to play in a city like this. It’s great to come back.”

Falloon says it’s hard to believe that he’s starting his fifth NHL season.

“Ray and I were looking in Hockey News the other day and saw that Mark Szoke played as an overage (a 20-year-old) last year (in Lethbridge, of the WHL). Our last year in Spokane he was a 16-year-old with us.

“Now, everyone we played with or against in the league is done.

“We felt old.”

San Jose coach Kevin Constantine calls Falloon “the best pure goal-scorer that we have on our team.

“If I could put the puck in the slot and pick any player to get out there all alone with that puck in a game situation, he’d be the guy I’d pick,” the coach said. “Guys who can score are hard to find.”

Constantine is urging Falloon to go to the net for rebounds that lead to what he calls the ugly goal.

“In this league to score 50 goals you’re going to have to get some ugly goals along the way,” he said. “If he could improve that area of his game - going to the net…”

The coach lets the thought go. The conclusion is that Falloon by going harder to the net might be headed to the 50-goal breakthrough.

“Now he’s got a little more size and strength because he’s been working out,” Constantine said, “he’ll probably be a little more eager to do that.”

Another expectation.

To Pat Falloon it comes with the territory.

, DataTimes