Thanks to a couple of nice posters at HF Boards, Adie and I decided to "sneak" into the Teal and White game (TWG).
The TWG is the Sharks annual preseason welcome for season ticket holders. The event is free with your ticket holder id and there are autograph tables set up for all the players followed by a scrimmage. Needless to say, we are not season ticket holders.
One poster emailed me the "save the date" flyer to use as a season ticket holder invitation and another poster pm'd me his phone number in case the "invitation" didn't fly. See? There are still awesome people in the world. Otherwise, I might not have made the drive to San Jose with no guarantee of getting in the doors. We did have a backup plan, which was to backtrack to Oakland since the A's were in town.
But, with just a little stress, we got in! Yay! First thing we did was note that all of the lines to the autograph tables were already hella long. No thank you. The sucky thing (for me) was that 3 of the 4 tables were located in the upstairs eateries...so you couldn't just walk thru and see the players and take photos. You had to actually stand in line if you wanted to gawk. Again...no thank you.
So, thanks to the setup, here are a ton of pictures from the ONE table that was located directly on the concourse.
Luckily three of my favorites were at the table,
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| Dany Heatley |
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| Jamie McGinn |
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| Torrey Mitchell |
as well as an adorable WooostahBabyShark,
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| Tommy Wingels |
and one ex-Blackhawks goalie.
The guys were really cute...interacting with the fans pretty graciously. Especially Heater and Ginner.
After walking the concourse, Adie and I headed down to the ice to choose our seats. At the TWG, you sit where ever the hell you want! Even if you're sitting in a STH seat, they don't care. So we had to decide if we wanted to be right on the glass (my vote) or behind the benches (Adie's vote). In the end we compromised and sat behind and to the side of one bench, about 4 rows from the ice so we could see better, yet still be close to the players.
Prior to the game, the Sharks broadcasters gave a Sharks Hot Stove report on the big screen.
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| Drew, Dan, Randy, Bakes - or the backs of their heads |
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| Sticks...and Randy Hahn's profile |
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| Dan Rusinowsky - I have no idea if I spelled that right |
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| Get Remenda Out Of Here! ~ Nabby |
Like any game, there were stretches/warmups...I should say that this game was heavy on the prospects. Especially with the Sharks heading to Europe, the coaching staff was really evaluating talent. I actually tried to include a lot of prospect photos since I have so many of the "stars". I'll label where I can...
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| Benn Ferreiro |
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| Taylor Doherty, Ginner, Heater, Pav |
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| Thomas Greiss' Curly Hair |
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| Scottie Nichol with Tommy Wingels |
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| I luvs Niitty's mask. So pretty. |
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| JoPa-Pa (Congrats new daddy!) |
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| Zalewski, Ferriero, and #46 (sorry!) |
I luvs our national anthem. No, really...I do.
But I especially love it at sporting events when it enables me to get my money shots...
players without hats/helmets!!!!!
And then there was a scrimmage...
Pretty early in the game, Joe Loprieno got hit in the eye and had to have stitches.
And, also pretty early in the game, Tommy Wingels laid a hit on Logan "Juicy" Couture. Jay Leach immediately jumped on Tommy and there was a little bit of a scrum.
More shots from the scrimmage...there were a couple good-natured scrums and Clowie got a penalty. He thought it was funny as hell.
Team Teal won 2-1. Jumbo scored the first goal by driving down the ice and scoring on Niemi. He said in his interview that he'd been waiting for months and finally scored on him. Too bad it was months too late. But he was happy...as was Demers and the rest of Team Teal.
Demers stayed out on the ice along with Nichol and Mayers. Working on some things. Luv that kid.
And so it ended. Awesome night. Back to reality.
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| Dan DaSilva |
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| Desjardins |
Pretty early in the game, Joe Loprieno got hit in the eye and had to have stitches.
For reasons unknown to me, Scotty Nichol took off his jersey and pads on the bench midway through the first period.
Drew interviewed Patty and Jumbo
More shots from the scrimmage...there were a couple good-natured scrums and Clowie got a penalty. He thought it was funny as hell.
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| Alex Stalock |
Team Teal won 2-1. Jumbo scored the first goal by driving down the ice and scoring on Niemi. He said in his interview that he'd been waiting for months and finally scored on him. Too bad it was months too late. But he was happy...as was Demers and the rest of Team Teal.
And so it ended. Awesome night. Back to reality.
