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November 24, 2002
Sharks beat Blues, 4-1
By Matt Petersen
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SAINT LOUIS -- Back to the cold again and my feeling
wasn’t very toasty about getting a win here against
the dreaded Blues. We recently saw St. Louis dominate
in Montreal and I was sure that the Sharks -- nearing
the end of a grueling road trip and giving up four
goals in the second period in a 4-1 loss to Pittsburgh
the game before -- would end up feeling the same pain
as the Canadiens. Fortunately, the Sharks may have
played their finest game of the year that will
hopefully jump start their season.
Early season holdout Brad Stuart shook off the rust by
contributing two points (a goal and an assist) and
nasty defense, and Owen Nolan and Mike Ricci added two
assists apiece. A fantastic showing, and even though I
was a little perplexed that I was seemingly the only
Sharks fan in the building, it was kind of
exhilarating at the same time. After jumping from my
seat after Vinnie Damphouse’s first period goal, I
quickly found that I was the only one in the building
that was standing. I heard somebody behind me whisper,
“what an ass,” and I’m sure it wasn’t a reference to
my anatomy.
It’s too bad because I really braced myself for some
good ribbing. These two teams haven’t exactly been
lovey-dovey these days, and dating back to two
recent playoff experiences, the two Western Conference
foes have really built a heated rivalry.
I know that whenever the Blues come to town, the
Sharks and their fans really get up for it. So as we
pulled in to St. Louie and found our $10 parking lot
across the street from the Savvis Center, I proudly
slipped into my Shark jersey and braced for the storm.
Besides the “ass” comment, the only other incident
came before the game when two older Blues fans refused
to talk to the camera because of my Shark jersey. “Not
with that thing on,” one of the guys said as he waved
a finger at me and hurried past.
But for the most part, we had a great time talking to
these folks who are steadfast in their love for the
Blues. They say that hockey takes a distant backseat
to the town’s first two loves -- the Cardinals (it is
a baseball town) and the Rams. Even though the Blues
have a long-standing tradition in this town being
around since the 60s as a member of the “next six”
franchises, fans say that they won’t get the same
respect of the other team’s until the Cup is won here.
The Savvis is a cool downtown arena, but it takes on
the same qualities of many of the old arena’s we’ve
seen so far --18,000-plus seating, two levels of
luxury boxes, blah, blah, blah. Not to fault the
place, but we’ve seen a lot of buildings right now
(24), and they’re starting to morph together. The
upside is that for $50, we were sitting about 25 rows
from the ice, some of the finest seats for 50 bucks
we’ve had thus far. Next to Edmonton (the best), St.
Louis comes in a close second.
We hadn’t eaten since Nashville, so we were looking to
get some grub. Joe and Jeff took down a couple of
chili dogs and large soda’s for eight bucks, and I had
a dog, an order of fries and a soda for 10. Pretty
standard fare, not too great, not too bad.
So after we gobbled down our food and drink, made nice
with the folks around us after the game, and headed
for our downtown hotel room. I felt obliged to tip a
sax man blowing a Coltrane number outside of the
arena, because I was feeling a little happy, and the
win was music to my ears. It would be a prelude to our
next stop, Nashville, TN., the Music City, where we’d
see the Sharks for the fourth and last time of the
trip...
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Game #24 11/24/02
San Jose at St. Louis
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