On Sunday night, I did something that I had never done before: attend a Dallas Stars game away from the AAC. I watched them drop a 5-1 decision to the San Jose Sharks at the SAP Center. Here’s what I learned not from the game, but from my experience, about the SJ hockey community.
Have you ever thought about seeing a different walk of life when it comes to the NHL? Chances are that if you have been a Dallas Stars fan for more than a season, you have experienced at least one game in-person.
But have you gone on the road?
This past Sunday, a friend and I visited San Jose, California. As part of a small spring break trip, I headed west with the main intent of seeing the Stars take on the Sharks at the SAP Center.
Upon arrival on Saturday afternoon, one thing was evident: the city of San Jose LOVES their hockey team. Whether it was a sign in a window, a license plate frame, or a bumper sticker, you didn’t go far through the city without seeing some Sharks reference. And don’t even get me started on the clothes. It seemed as though every person had something Sharks-related on their person.
Dallas Stars
The Sharks had played on that Saturday afternoon and had lost 3-1 to the Nashville Predators. But it didn’t bother them. They stayed in their gear and embraced their team. At around 4 p.m. the fans began to flood out of the SAP Center. They went their various directions, but offered a consistent flow of Sharks pride that seemed to never end.
Being in a green “Benn/Seguin ’16” shirt and walking the streets of downtown, I expected at least a little bit of ribbing from the locals. But that didn’t happen. Instead, they were extremely kind and inquisitive, asking if I was in town for the game and if I was from Dallas. Some also wanted to know what exactly it was that caused the Stars to drop off this season.
When it came to the night of the game, I began walking from my hotel over to the game. Besides running into two other Stars fans, I was enveloped into a sea of teal and black. As we walked to the SAP Center, I got more of the same questions from the day before.
It was clear that they had a lot of pride in their team, but more on that later.
The SAP Center itself is vastly different from the American Airlines Center. It holds 17,496, which is just about a thousand less than the AAC. When you initially enter the arena, you go up a staircase that leads you to the only level in the stadium. There are two decks, and both can be accessed from the ground level.
The arena, as you probably guessed, is laid out as a giant circle.
But what I thought was the coolest part of the arena was the low roof. At the AAC, the roof is in the convex shape and bubbles out. At the SAP Center, the roof is practically flat. In other words, it traps and rebounds sound a lot better.
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The game itself probably wasn’t more than 85 percent full, but when San Jose scored, it sounded like a sold-out game at the AAC during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I mean it was loud.
They had the goal horn that sounds exactly like a foghorn from a boat out at sea, and it painfully rang five times as the Stars fans in the building groaned.
During the game, Sharks fans would turn to us and ask us about why the Dallas Stars had fallen so hard, about what the hockey culture is like in Dallas, and about how we were treating “their” Antti Niemi.
When Remi Elie scored and it felt as though we were the only ones cheering in the entire arena, they wanted to know all about this #40 that they had never heard of prior to him scoring.
After the 5-1 stumping, I wandered out to the street en route to the hotel. There were plenty of Sharks fans attempting to console us and hoping that we had at least had somewhat of a positive experience minus the result of the game.
All in all, a visit to San Jose is a chance to see a completely different hockey culture. In Big D, the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks have reigned supreme for the past 15 years or so, while the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars seem to be the “plan B” option to follow.
But SJ doesn’t have that. All they have is the Sharks in their vicinity, and it was awesome to see how fully they embraced it.
Next: Stars Need A Victory Over Calgary For Morale Boost
If you’re looking for a place to go see a Dallas Stars game next season, consider San Jose. Not only is the game of hockey well-expressed and strongly welcomed, but the fan base is courteous, welcoming, and humbled. It’s a great place to check out a game, so try it out if you can. You won’t be sorry.