Teal and White Recap and the Game Day for Tonight's PreSeason Game

First, the Teal and White recap:

Despite being a season ticket holder only event, Teal and White has become quite popular. Lines snake around the Tank to get in long before the doors open and nearly everyone goes in with a game plan for autograph lines and ice skating. Standing outside,waiting for the doors to open and the fans to flood in and fill the bottom of the Tank, I find it mind boggling that people still don't think hockey has a home in my state. Thousands stand outside, waiting to get in to see an exhibition game from a team that laid a fat egg in the playoffs. We WANT hockey. Not only that, we wants Sharks hockey. It's been too long.

The fun stuff:

I never sit downstairs during the regular season, so getting to sit in the rich seats if pretty awesome. I like the view from upstairs, but the novelty of seats 13 rows up from the glass hasn't worn off for me yet. Meeting the players is awesome, especially when one of them gives Afro the eye, (she's available, Joslin!), but I really come for the game. It's so much fun to be able to watch the players just have fun out on the ice. Sure, Teal is trying to beat White and vice versa, but it's an exhibition game. Just a scrimmage. The rookies may be trying to impress, but the veterans are out there having a blast.

I chose team Teal this year, mostly because it had Ryane Clowe. Afro took team White, and Mina was assigned Teal, though none of us really cared. We cheered for all the goals, no matter who scored them.

Sexsmith was a beast and kept Teal down to 1 goal, giving White the win. Then the shootout came. I don't know what happened, but the Sexywall feel and Teal blew White out of the water in the shootout. Fans select the players for the shootout and I think the best moment was when someone selected Brad Staubitz. He looked absolutely shocked & repaid the fan by scoring a goal. Nichol was selected and skated over and bear hugged his fan, who were assuming had been a long time admirer. Jody Shelley surprised us all by scoring a sick shoot out goal. Randy Hahn suggested the coaches take this into consideration.

Randy and Drew, stars in their own right, announced the lineups for each of the teams. They also showed us they were in regular season form by riffing and rambling in the way that only they can.

Ok, enough rambling there. Tonight's HOCKEY! (You'll have to wait for the regular season for game day art.)

Sharks took last night's game against LA, (in Ontario "what's that smell?" California. No seriously. Drive down 10 or 60 and tell me it doesn't smell weird sometimes. The Santa Ana winds do this area no favors. I'm going to get letters, aren't I?), in the shoot out. Tonight, they're back up the the Bay Area to face the Canucks. If past pre season games are any indicator, this game will be chippy at best and nose breaking at worst. I don't know what it is, but the Canucks and Sharks don't get along well in the pre season. Now that there are more than a few former Sharks on the team, I suspect things will be just a little bit awkward once the puck drops.

7:30 PM. The Teal Mile comes back to life tonight.

Should be awesome. Go Sharks!