Swimming with Sharks

Have you ever been in a room of people, looked around and realized every single person there was different from you in some obvious way?  It's a very uncomfortable eperience.  Now, imagine if that room contained 17,000 people, and you'll get some idea of what it was like to be an Islanders fan at the Sharks game in San Jose last night.  While most people don't think of San Jose as being much of a sports hot spot (let alone a hockey one), the atmosphere at HP Pavilion was pretty electric and intense.  To pull a near sellout crowd against the Islanders on a Thursday night is solid; for those 17,000 fans to be vocal, knowledgable and confident is impressive.

The arena itself is utilitarian, but elegant in an unfinished-yet-modern sort of way.  It fits well in Silicon Valley, and looks like many of the technology company offices that fill the area (exposed ceilings, unpolished metal fixtures, etc.)  It's plain, but an arena doesn't have to be flashy when it's filled with white, black and teal jersey-clad fans every night.  The food choices were adequate, and while the place didn't blow me away, it was a perfectly serviceable and functional new-ish hockey arena (unlike Nassau Coliseum, which is neither serviceable, functional nor new-ish).

When the Islanders took a surprising (even to me) 1-0 lead in the second period, I stood to cheer.  I looked around the arena and saw about 10 other people standing.  For a sellout crowd, you'd expect at least 5% of the fans to be rooting for the opposition.  The combination of passionate Sharks fans and pathetically weak Islanders fan base, however, made this game extremely one-sided.  With their Sharks down 1-0, the fans didn't panic.  Like actual sharks, the team and its fans calmly kept circling their prey and waited for the right time to strike.  That time came on a 5-on-3 power play later in the second period, and again in the OT shootout where San Jose grabbed the win.

Fans celebrate after the Sharks tied the game in the second period.

Overall, it was a good experience.  It had been some time since I saw live hockey, and I wasn't disappointed with my second exposure to NHL, California-style (I had been to a Los Angeles Kings game once before).  My Isles grabbed a point and pushed the two-time defending Western Conference Regular Season Champions (as denoted by lame, "feel good" banners hanging from the rafters) to a shootout, while the home team got the win they expected and, quite frankly, deserved.  I would absolutely go back to a Sharks game later this season - the game made me realize how much I love hockey live, and the arena and crowd are well worth the price and the half-hour drive from Stanford.