Opening Night Novella

Some of you were lucky enough to have your season start last night. For Sharks fans, the season doesn't officially start until Oct 9th. I await it with some apprehension. Opening nights are always high drama even without the additional awkwardness that the strange occurrences at the Tank add to experience.

Last year, the power went out. It was the weirdest game I have ever been to and the only one where I wished they had glow sticks hanging in the bathroom.

From our seats, we could hear the percussive THUMP of the electricity as it tried to comeback on, to no avail. The players kept skating around for warm up for a few minutes after it went dark, apparently so in tune with the rink that a little matter like darkness was no cause for concern. If it weren't for the very large glass facades on either side of HP, it would have been pitch black in that building. As it was, when an usher, puzzled by the darkness and unsure of what to do, closed his or her door, it suddenly became extraordinarily dark where we were sitting. A mere two seats between us the the stairs, they were almost invisible. The usher, realizing they'd plunged fans into great darkness, opened the door allowing the light from outside to stream in and illuminate our way down.

Eventually, the staff were able to get some auxiliary lights to come on, at which point the game commenced. Silently. They didn't even let us sing the anthem. We couldn't have been much worse than the gentleman who forgot a verse, but did it with such style that I seriously doubt most people noticed.

So I find myself wondering, what will happen this Thursday, as 17,000+ faithful fans file into to watch their Sharks play their first official game of the season. Will the water main burst? Will the Guadalupe River flood its banks again? Will said flood contain some sort of half fish half man hybrid that will terrorize downtown San Jose? Will aliens land on center ice and steal Nabby? Will "the big one" hit as the puck drops? Will Cheechoo bust through the boards once more, only to cause a chain reaction which collapses the boards completely, forcing the game to be rescheduled? Will ghosts rise up and start driving cabs recklessly around the city? Or, defying all logic, will this game be completely normal and go off without the slightest hitch? I don't know. The only thing I can say with certainly is that 17,000+ fans will arrive opening night to see their Sharks start, once again, on the long road to the Cup.