The big event prior to this game was Patrick Marleau’s no. 12 being retired to the rafters at SAP Center, while the game was secondary. As for this game, things were pretty even between these two struggling teams for most of this game, but the Blackhawks had other plans in the shootout, taking this one 4-3.
Everything went right and was put together incredibly well except for the outcome of the game. The ceremony began two hours before puck drop, featuring the man himself and his family, along with several Sharks alumni, a few other Bay Area sports legends, and a sellout crowd of 17,000+. This night is a significant milestone in Sharks history and will be talked about for years to come. Lots of emotions were involved, and it is truly a memorable and unbelievable experience for everyone involved and in attendance to witness history. The banner looked amazing and will hang in the rafters at the Shark Tank forever. There is no player in Sharks history that has earned and deserved this honor than Mr. San Jose Shark himself. My three best memories of Patty Marleau are his playoff overtime winner against the Red Wings in 2011, his four-goal third period against the Avalanche during a regular-season game in 2017, and breaking the all-time games played record against the Golden Knights in Vegas in 2021. He is an absolute legend of the game, an all-around great guy, and a guaranteed hall-of-famer once he becomes eligible.
Now onto the secondary event of this historic night, a.k.a. the Sharks hosting the Chicago Blackhawks. Every Sharks player wore Patrick Marleau’s no. 12 during warmups, marking the last time anyone on the Sharks will wear the number 12. Early in the first period, the Blackhawks struck first via David Gust. The Sharks evened things up two minutes later on Nick Bonino's tenth goal of the season from Jacob MacDonald and Nico Sturm. Chicago went back on top about a minute after the first equalizer via Brett Seney. The Sharks followed that up with Evgeny Svechnikov's eighth goal of the year from Nico Sturm and Marc-Eduoard Vlasic to tie it at two. The first period also featured a scrap between Noah Gregor and Connor Murphy.
Things picked back up early in the third period, as Max Domi scored to put Chicago back up by one. Soon after, Noah Gregor would score to tie the game at three, but this goal was disallowed after further review determined that Gregor went offside in the process of scoring this goal. The Sharks would make up for this late in the third period by officially knotting it at three via Erik Karlsson's 19th goal of the year from Marc-Eduoard Vlasic and Logan Couture to force bonus hockey. This game would ultimately be decided in the shootout, where all it took was Philipp Kurashev scoring in the Blackhawks' first attempt to win it for Chicago. The Sharks sent out Kevin Labanc, Logan Couture, and Nick Bonino during the shootout, but none of them were able to get anything past Petr Mrazek.
Kaapo Kahkonen was given the start in net for Team Teal, recording 32 saves in the skills competition defeat. Another significant headline in this game was that the Blackhawks scratched Patrick Kane and Sam Lafferty due to trade-related reasons, while also drawing speculation that Timo Meier may have played his last game in Teal leading up to Friday's trade deadline.
What truly mattered on this special night was Patrick Marleau becoming the first player in Sharks franchise history to have his jersey retired by the team. It would have been ideal for the Sharks to win for Patty, but we still got a great, interesting, and eventful game nonetheless. It should be a no-brainer that Joe Thornton will be the next player to have his jersey retired by the Sharks, except it will be some time before this happens since Jumbo Joe isn't done playing competitively yet. The Sharks' current homestand continues with their next game on Tuesday against the Montreal Canadiens at 7:30 pm PT.
Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App
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