Guest columnist gets her hockey fill
By Shannon Faraone, Special to South Valley Newspapers
There was a time when the suggestion of a hockey team in San Jose caused more snickers than kudos. Now, 13 years after the Sharks’ 1991-1992 inaugural season in Oakland, the absence of hockey this year speaks loudly to its popularity.
Last season, if you were driving downtown on a game night, I would have wished you the best of luck navigating traffic! Now, San Jose seems like a ghost town on hockey nights. Businesses are suffering and fans are trying to find ways to occupy their time.
For those of you who aren’t FINanatics, the National Hockey League is in a lockout due to conflicts of opinion regarding the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which expired in September of this year. As part of the new CBA, the Board of Directors demanded a salary cap for the players.
It would give the players over fifty percent of the NHL’s revenue and would promise an average salary of 1.3 million to the players. The players, however, are not impressed. They want to continue to earn the 8 and 9 million dollar contracts they had with the last ten year CBA. The board is looking at a bigger picture, though.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not picking sides. If I was making eight million a season and then had to give it up, I would be a little angry as well. The thing that bothers me here is the most important part of all of this is getting overlooked – the hockey. With the way the Niners and the Raiders look this year, I doubt you are turning to football, and basketball is still struggling in the Bay.
But with the Sharks coming off their best campaign, fans were optimistic this year.
Now we are looking at the possibility of having a two-year break from our favorite sport. Both sides involved are unwavering and are showing no sign of letting up anytime soon.
In a somewhat pathetic attempt to put a bandage over a gun shot wound, the HP Pavillion hosted a game between the San Jose affiliate Cleveland Barons against the Edmonton Roadrunners. More than 11,000 fans attended the game, and all season ticket holders received complimentary tickets. It shouldn’t be too hard to fill up an arena when you are giving away tickets, right?
So, as I took my bottom level, row 18 seat, I began to wonder if this was a blessing or a cruel form of torture. There we were, piling into the arena, grateful to see the puck hit the ice at least once in The Tank this season, and I had never thought about the fact that we weren’t even watching Sharks.
I’ve never been so excited to see Christian Erhoff or Jim Fahey, both of whom are no strangers to the ice in San Jose. Make no mistake about it, though, this was a Barons game.
The game did offer something that most Sharks games don’t, a look into the future. We got to see first hand the hopefuls for our future team. Players like Josh Gorges, who is a first year pro with the Barons and who won a Memorial Cup with Kelowna in the WHL and Craig Valette, has actually skated in teal before.
The game also gave Sharks fans a glimpse into the road our players travel.
It may not have been a Sharks game, but it gave me a great sense of respect and pride for what our players go through. The Barons may have been shutout 2-0 by Edmonton’s minor league team, but they offered us a glimmer of teal and silver hope that hockey will return back to San Jose again. And no matter what, faithful Sharks and Barons fans are always up for the Shark Chomp.
Shannon Faraone is a guest columnist and an avid Sharks fan. She can be reached at sf******@***********ws.com.
