It was a semi-eventful drive - hit some rain in Dixon...saw some crazy looking mountain sheep on the side of the freeway near Sunol...saw a dude dressed in Raiders gear come out of a perfectly barren field to walk up to a CHP car that was monitoring the road construction. Asking directions to Oakland perhaps?
I pulled into Sharks Ice at 8:05 and immediately walked over to the nice old gentlemen who were handing out wristbands. Mr. Wristband asked what my tattoo meant....I answered "Peace & Harmony, Hope, and Honor" to which he replied "Well, I like the honor part". hahahaha
Even though some people were lining up outside of the entrance to South Rink (for autographs presumably?), I headed over to the North Rink to grab a seat. Settled in at center ice in the second row at about 8:16. The Zamboni came around at 8:18 and kept me awake for the moment.
I woke up in full a few minutes later when I heard a booming voice entering the rink. No, it was not Joe Thornton... It was a fan whom I shall call Mr. Friendly. In a demonstration of my usual luck, Mr. Friendly chose to sit right behind me, although there were many open benches on the bleachers.
"Hi! Hello!" said Mr. Friendly to just about everyone... "How long have you been a Sharks fan??" was a question put to most. "ZOMG! I love the Zamboni!!" Mr. Friendly put a strange (although possibly accurate) emphasis on the syllables. Zam-bone-EE! He proceeded to give a history of the Zamboni and then go on about how much he wants to ride one. A couple people agreed that it would be really fun, at which point he sounded disgusted that they had fallen into his trap. "It's just an ice scraper. No big deal." Did you know that the ice at the Tank is only 2" deep?
BTW, it was too fucking cold in the North Rink. I wonder how deep the ice is? :-p And that Winnipeg is colder than Edmonton (or vice versa)? I confess (as if you can't tell it from my prose thus far) that I was reading Solipsist and therefore feeling somewhat cynical and superior. There are some good points in that book but I digress. Mr. Friendly is glad when football is here because it means hockey is right around the corner. He goes on to enumerate why all other sports suck...
...but suddenly I'm distracted because it's 8:39 and Antti Niemi enters the ice. Thomas Greiss follows exactly one minute later. Mr. Friendly is quite an asshole - yelling at Greiss (very LOUDLY) 'go away! put him back in the cooler! he sucks!' What a dick. Now I don't feel bad about mocking him.
Group B practice was scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m., but as mentioned, the goalies and their coaches were on ice at 9:40.
8:59 Here come the Sharks! Or at least group B...Patty, Pavs, Boyler, Dougie...and then I lost track. Mashinter and McLaren are freaking giants. Wow. Speaking of giants, Dougie forechecked Heater hard. Intensity definitely up from the Captain's skates...
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| Luvs this artsy shot of Patty |
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| Can you tell I luvs the motion shots?? |
Practice lasted until 9:45 but I knew I needed to get back over to the South Rink to grab a spot for the scrimmage so I left at about 9:35. The wristbands were passed out because there is much less seating in the South Rink. When I got over there, it was pretty packed and the teal team was already on the ice warming up.
Well, TBH, I took a bunch of notes during the scrimmage on who played where, who scored what, who checked whom, etc. But if I type all those down, this already long blog is going to be ginormous. So on with the pictures! The white team arrives from the frozen tundra (aka the North Rink)...
On with the scrimmage! Next two pics: Boyler laughing with the ref and the opening faceoff.
And now, bring on the random shots from the scrimmage...
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| DW |
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| For a long time I thought he was a robot |
At intermission (or halftime since they only played two periods) there was a lot of milling in the aisles.
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| Bakes laughing with Niitty |
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| Dan DaSilva - luvs him on twitter |
At one point during the scrimmage, Kent Huskins took a puck just under the eye. Apparently it rolled up his stick. Here he is on the ice in pain, going off the ice with a towel, and later on the bench with stitches.
And the final score is:
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| Team Teal wins, 3-2 |
So, back over to antartic....errrr...the damn North Rink. It was way too cold to take notes and almost too cold to take pictures. I don't know whether it was the location in which I sat or the shivers coursing through my body, but my pictures definitely took a turn for the blurry. Oh well.
A few notes I did take. Jumbo is funny. Jason and Jumbo shoving in drills. Lilja spinning Seto around like a top and then hugging him to keep him from falling. Squirrely Seto. Mmhmm. Wallin grimacing during the sprints and then falling on a right turn. Ankle = not good. Ginners didn't look so good to me either. Low energy which I do not expect from him. And on to the pictures...
After practice was done, the baby sharks signed autographs for the kids (and older fans too).
Did Wingels get a second job as a mannequin?
Well, that's about it. I bought a practice jersey for $25 bucks (special!) and headed home to warm up.
