SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Cap Raeder knows his stint as the San Jose Sharks' coach won't last long. He isn't even planning to unpack.

Raeder will be in charge of the Sharks until a new coach is hired to replace Darryl Sutter, fired by general manager Dean Lombardi on Sunday after San Jose stumbled to an 8-12-2-2 start. Several obvious names are on Lombardi's list, and he doesn't expect the search to last more than a few days.

Raeder, one of Sutter's former assistants who's now a pro scout for the Sharks, ran practice at their training complex on Monday. A day earlier, he was driving to a minor league game in Portland, Maine, when he got a call ordering him to jump on a flight to California.

"To make changes now wouldn't work,'' said Raeder, who lives in the Boston area year-round. "We just want to get everyone to refocus, pay attention to details and to play for 60 minutes.''

Raeder and director of pro development Doug Wilson will run the Sharks' bench in Phoenix on Tuesday night in place of Sutter and assistants Rich Preston and Lorne Molleken, who also were fired in Lombardi's surprising housecleaning.

"You have to separate the emotions, because this is a business,'' forward Scott Thornton said. "You can't let it become a distraction. Hopefully, it focuses us even more.''

The Sharks were almost uniformly shocked by the firings. The players were disappointed in their start, but many thought holdouts and injuries contributed to it just as much as their poor play.

"I don't know who the new coach will be, and you can't worry about it,'' high-scoring forward Teemu Selanne said. "We just have to find a way to get the job done. We just have to stay positive and turn it around. We can do it.''

After winning the Pacific Division and reaching the conference semifinals last season, the Sharks began slowly this fall while playing without holdout goalie Evgeni Nabokov and defenseman Brad Stuart. They eventually returned along with Thornton, who was out after shoulder surgery.

But November was no better than October, with the Sharks going 5-6-2-1 while enduring an eight-game road trip. Apparently, that was enough to convince Lombardi to dump Sutter and his hard-nosed, old-fashioned hockey ethic.

"Darryl certainly has his M.O.,'' Lombardi said. "You know what he stands for, but that's too simple. When something like this happens, we all have to accept a degree of responsibility.''

Lombardi isn't talking, but the names of several possible candidates have surfaced: Larry Robinson, who coached New Jersey to consecutive Stanley Cup finals and the 2000 championship; Kevin Constantine, who coached the Sharks for two seasons in the mid-1990s; Pierre Page, a veteran NHL coach who's old friends with Lombardi; or Bob Gainey, the former Dallas general manager.

Others include former Washington coach Ron Wilson, veteran coach Herb Brooks -- even Barry Melrose, the former Los Angeles coach and current ESPN commentator who's been interested in other West Coast jobs.

Some expect Lombardi to choose a coach who favors a more up-tempo style of play, the better to maximize the strengths of speedy forwards such as Patrick Marleau, Marco Sturm and Selanne.

Unfortunately, the Sharks won't be able to use Alex Korolyuk, a speedy Russian wing who went home to Moscow in the offseason after complaining about his lack of involvement in Sutter's rotation. Korolyuk has played for a team in Russia this fall, making him ineligible to return this season.

Still, the Sharks' biggest problems are on defense, where a suitable replacement still hasn't emerged for Gary Suter. San Jose didn't add much to its roster in the offseason, preferring to stick to a budget while most of the other Western Conference contenders got better.

"I think we have the players who can turn this around, but we've got to start doing it instead of talking about it,'' Stuart said. "It will be a little weird (playing for a new coach), because Darryl is the only coach I've played for at this level.''