After trades, Sharks fans brace for more difficult times
George Barata attended Patrick Marleau’s number retirement ceremony at SAP Center last weekend, and it was a reminder of the Sharks’ glory days: lots of familiar players on hand from standout teams, and another packed house at the downtown arena.
The good old days seem like a distant memory now. Some star players have been traded away, the team is among the worst in the NHL and crowds appear to be a fraction of what they once were.
With some uncertainty as to when things will improve under a new front office and coaching staff, it’s not terribly easy to be a Sharks fan right now.
“Fans just have to be patient,” Barata, 69, said before the Sharks’ 8-3 loss to the Washington Capitals. “I mean, it’s been ugly. It’s going to get uglier.”
“It’s going to be probably a few more years before (the Sharks) build it up,” said Caroline Chavez, 76, of San Jose. “They made so many bad contracts, so now they’re kind of paying for it.”
The Sharks are a week removed from trading leading
goal-scorer Timo Meier to the New Jersey Devils, and eight months removed from dealing Brent Burns, the 2017 Norris Trophy winner, to the Carolina Hurricanes. Sharks fans are still getting to know some of the players on this year’s team, as eight of the 20 players who dressed Saturday weren’t with the club last season.
“I think there’s potential,” said Dave McCready, 82, of San Jose. “I’m not sure that giving away your scorers, which they seem to do, is the right way to go. But there’s also the young kids that they just brought up.”
Forward
William
Eklund, the top prospect in the Sharks organization, was recalled from the AHL on Friday and made his season debut in the NHL Saturday. Going forward, Eklund could be part of a talented nucleus that includes forwards Thomas Bordeleau and Filip Bystedt, and defensemen Shakir Mukhamadullin, Nikita Okhotyuk and Mattias Havelid.
Still, more than one Sharks fan who spoke with this news organization Saturday said they wouldn’t mind seeing the team take on more of a rough-andtumble personality.
“We need to get some bigger guys. We’re kind of getting beat up,” said Kenia Leon, 42, who lives in Santa Rosa. “It seems like we’ve been stuck in a transition mode for a while and losing Meier, it kind of hurts, right?
“Maybe we don’t see the bigger picture; we need strength. We need defense.”
The Sharks announced that 17,562 tickets were sold for Saturday’s game, a sellout crowd possibly bolstered by the ‘shirsey’ giveaway to fans entering the arena, an afternoon start and a high-profile opponent like the Capitals, led by captain and future hallof-famer Alex Ovechkin. It was the Sharks’ ninth announced sellout this season. They lost 8-3.
Earlier this week, the announced number of tickets sold for Sharks games against Montreal and St. Louis were 11,470 and 12,290, respectively, although the actual number of people in attendance appeared to be far fewer.