CPF Hockey: My 5th NHL Game: Blackhawks 5, Sharks 4 (OT) (3/23/24)

I have officially attended my fifth NHL game, third game at the Shark Tank, and my first game during the 2023-24 NHL season. Despite the less-than-ideal final outcome of this game, it was an amazing game that was absolutely worth attending and a lot better than if I had stayed home and watched it on TV. I plan to cover both a recap of the Tank-4-Celebrini Cup and aspects of my personal experience from attending my most recent Sharks game on Saturday, so let's begin:

This game featured the same match-up as my first-ever NHL game between the Sharks and Blackhawks, except this time both teams are the bottom two in the entire NHL instead of being playoff contenders. My buddy and I arrived at SAP Center just over two hours before the start of the game, and since the doors hadn't opened yet, we walked into Downtown San Jose for a bit, all the way to and through San Pedro Square filled with a lively atmosphere filled with vendors and several restaurant and bar options, along with many others who appeared to be attending the game as well. Once we finished walking through San Pedro Square, my buddy and I headed back to the Shark Tank to enter the arena. Since it was South Asian Heritage Night at the Tank, the Sharks gave away cricket shirseys to everyone in attendance Saturday night, and although I didn't wear mine at the game, it looks incredible and I plan to wear mine at some point. However, my buddy and I first went to the team store inside the arena, and I decided to purchase one of the new Sharks Cali Fin alternate jerseys that they debuted this season with William Eklund's name and no. 72 on the back and threw it on for the night.

After purchasing my newest jersey from the team store, my buddy and I were hungry, so we had to buy dinner at the game, and each of us got western bacon cheeseburgers. They were good but not worth the cost the burger went for at SAP Center. We then went to find our seats in the second deck so we could eat our dinner, which explains why we couldn't head to the lower bowl to get a better view of pregame warmups, unlike other games my buddy and I have attended in years past. Still, it's always fun to catch pregame warmups whenever I'm at NHL games.

Prior to the singing of the national anthem, the Sharks held a moment of silence for 8-year-old Michael Huang, who tragically passed away earlier this month on a trip for the San Francisco Sabercats, his hockey team. After the moment of silence and the singing of the national anthem, the anticipation building up to first puck drop is always a great feeling when in attendance at live hockey games. Team Teal got off to a phenomenal start to this game, jumping out to a 4-0 lead through early in the second period. Thomas Bordeleau scored the first two goals of this game in the first period, with the first one on the power play near the four-minute mark and the second one at even strength near the ten-minute mark. Fabian Zetterlund and Calen Addison assisted on the first Bordeleau goal, while Justin Bailey and Nico Sturm assisted on the second Bordeleau goal. The first minute-and-a-half of the second period saw Fabian Zetterlund score twice to extend the Sharks' lead to four and get to 20 goals on the season, with the first of these two at even strength and the second of these two on the power play. Klim Kostin and Mario Ferraro assisted on the first Zetterlund goal, while William Eklund and Mikael Granlund assisted on the second Zetterlund goal. Late in the first period, a nice, solid tilt occurred between Luke Kunin and Andreas Athanasiou, who both dropped the gloves near the team benches and exchanged blow after blow, with Athanasiou getting the win after pinning Kunin down to the ice and both players heading straight to their respective dressing rooms with just over two minutes remaining in the first period and starting the second period in the penalty box. This marked my second-ever fight I've witnessed in an NHL game, and hockey fights are the best type of fights.

During the first intermission, I headed down to the lower bowl to attempt to take better photos of not just the ice, but the players entering back onto the ice ahead of the start of the second period, which I was able to do along with hurrying back to my assigned seat in enough time before the first puck drop of the middle frame. In addition, before the game and during the intermissions, groups of dancers performed traditional Indian dances, and it's great to see the Sharks get that community more involved in the sport of hockey. Near the seven-minute mark of the second period was when the Blackhawks scored their first goal of the game via Ryan Donato. Didn't make much of it at the time, but this was just the beginning of the tides turning the other way. Later in the second period, Chicago cut the Sharks' lead in half via Tyler Johnson. Things were still looking okay through two periods of play, but I have seen this downward spiral trend occur with this Sharks team several times throughout this season. I still had some hope left in me that Team Teal could still pull this off, but that hope dwindled in the third period, as Seth Jones scored early in the third period to get Chicago within one and Phillipp Kurashev potted the game-tying goal in the final minute of regulation to force overtime. It only took 18 seconds into the OT period for Seth Jones to score his second goal of the game to complete the comeback for the Blackhawks and another epic collapse from the Sharks.

Devin Cooley made his first start in his hometown Saturday night, recording 26 saves on 31 shots against. Despite this epic collapse by the Sharks, I am so thankful that I got to attend this game, and I am happy for my friend who went with me to this game, who got to see Connor Bedard's first game in San Jose and his Blackhawks rally from down four goals to win in OT. On the other hand, the Sharks are now 2-0-2 when I am at their games, and they further placed themselves in a prime position to win the draft lottery and land Macklin Celebrini. Between these two teams, the Sharks definitely need and deserve Macklin Celebrini more. Regardless of the end result, this game was a ton of fun, and I hope to attend more of these games in the future, especially when some of the Sharks' top prospects make the big-league roster in the next few seasons.

Regularly scheduled game reviews will resume on Tuesday, when the Sharks host the Dallas Stars in their next game and final game of their current homestand at 7:30 pm PT.