SANTA CLARA—The official NHL temperature was 57.4 degrees when the puck dropped between San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings Saturday night—way too warm for outdoor hockey, right?
Wrong.
Sure, there was an outdoor game last year with the Kings and Anaheim Ducks at Dodger Stadium, but I was still skeptical about the icy game being played in warm weather until I saw it with my own eyes.
It was marvelous.
Being from Chicago, outdoor hockey is nothing new. I’ve spent countless days watching rat hockey, league hockey and even the Frozen Four at Soldier Field—and I was certain I had extreme frost bite each time.
In the frozen tundra known as the Midwest, I’ve been battle tested in 50 below degree temperatures but that doesn’t mean I like it.
Walking up to Levi’s Stadium, I saw people in t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops and I was left wondering what bizarre alternate universe I was walking into.
“Where are your layers? I think I have some spare hand-warmers,” I wanted to shout before realizing all I was wearing was a light jacket.
The 2015 Coors Light Stadium brought together my two greatest joys in life, hockey and sunshine: I found my nirvana.
But I almost didn’t make it there.
While waiting on the shuttle to get to the stadium, a mini Civil War broke out on the bus. A rowdy bunch of Kings fans—who had clearly been “pre-gaming”—booed each and every Sharks fan that got on the bus and bit the heads off of jelly sharks as they walked by. These guys were not messing around.
And the Sharks fans, as you can imagine, did not enjoy their antics.
An all-out war erupted for which team laid claim to the bus. The Kings fans were there first, but they were in shark-infested waters. Meanwhile, I channeled by inner Switzerland and remained neutral.
Eventually, the Sharks fans had more than enough and decided to walk to the stadium, leaving me on a cheering bus with inebriated Kings fans. Hey, it beats walking.
When I got into the pressbox at Levi’s Stadium—which was an icebox compared to outside—I felt my eyes grow wider than ever before. I’ve seen the Grand Canyon. I’ve been to the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. This was better.
I had to restrain myself from putting my face right up to the glass. I could see everything.
The view of the rink, while small from the pressbox perched in the eighth level of Levi’s Stadium, was incredible. I could follow every play and I was seeing it all with a fantastic aerial view.
If you’ve ever been to a Sharks game, you’ve undoubtedly seen the fans do “the chomp” with their arms—which is dangerously close to what they do down at the University of Florida. It’s an awesome sight to behold normally, but seeing 70,205 fans do “the chomp” at Levi’s takes it to a whole new level.
But my favorite highlight of the evening came while chatting with our Sharks beat writer, Bob Burch. He’s been to more than 1,000 consecutive Sharks’ home games and I have a feeling this one takes the cake.
He soaked up the action all game and at one point I asked him if he’d ever imagined he’d watch the Sharks play outside. He turned to me, eyes wide like a kid in a candy shop, smiled and simply replied: “Never.”
Outdoor hockey is something every fan should experience. It takes the game back to its roots and plays it the way it should be played: in the elements.
I have but one regret from the game, and it’s one that will haunt me for the rest of my days: I didn’t take the coveted Stadium Series selfie.
It looks like the league will have to bring the series back to the Bay Area.
