Sharks had 'fun' beating Kings on night full of celebration
North of Bakersfield, they were calling this the revenge game.
But how much revenge, exactly, can be enacted in just one game on a team that won the biggest prize of them all? The San Jose Sharks took some solace in the fact that they spoiled the night for the Los Angeles Kings as they raised the banner and celebrated their Stanley Cup win during Wednesday night's home-opener at the Staples Center.
Ultimately, nothing can make up for the monumental collapse in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs back in April.
"We're not happy with how last season ended. It's tough to see your big rivals hoist the Stanley Cup. That being said, they earned it. They deserve it," Sharks center Tommy Wingels said. "But it's fun to come in here and win this game, absolutely."
What it does do is add fuel to the rivalry fire.
"It's been a long summer thinking about this game," Wingels said. "When the schedule came out and this was our first game, the media loved it, the fans loved it, but us players loved it too. Not a better way for us to start the season."
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said that this game wasn't scheduled by accident.
"When the schedule maker does the schedule, he doesn't have a big board and throw darts," Bettman said before the game. "He actually plans out what makes sense in building availability, the number of times teams are playing each other, matchups that demonstrate rivalries that are good for television.
Sutter: Kings 'had nothing' emotionally in loss to Sharks
And as I said a couple minutes ago, this a tremendous rivalry, made only stronger by last year's playoffs and we thought that this would be a great way to start the season."
It stung to be the ones sitting in the dressing room while the Kings lifted their banner. For nearly 30 minutes, San Jose players waited anxiously, trying to focus more on the game at hand than the ones that got away a few months ago.
"They earned the right to have that pregame ceremony and they obviously enjoyed it and the fans were rewarded for it," head coach Todd McLellan said. "That's why they played for the Stanley Cup at the end of the year. So, once that was over, the game started. The rivalry is always going to be there and it was there again tonight. I thought that if we could get the lead, it would work."
The Sharks have wiped the slate clean and are ready to build on win No. 1 all the way to a pregame ceremony of their own. If this hasn't already become one of the best rivalries in the NHL, it's about to.
"It doesn't matter, it's a new season," center Joe Thornton said. "They're the champs. We've got to get through them to get to where we need to be. Tonight was a good start to that."
