The Return of ChompBlog!

Hello!

After taking a brief blogging hiatus to mourn the loss of my beloved ChompBoard, I have decided to revive my little contribution to that community with the return of the ChompBlog. I'm hoping to get tkaine, the admin of the old ChompBlog, to forward me my two years' worth of archives, but if that's not possible then hey - no big deal, I can start anew. Hopefully, the content speaks for itself either way. Hell, if this little project gains a little steam, maybe I could even end up on an aggregator like Kukla's Korner...

Read more about the genesis of my love for the San Jose Sharks, after the jump!



By way of introduction - I am a 24-year-old freshly-graduated law student, about to take the New York bar exam in just seven short days. I was born in Mountain View, California, and spent the first eighteen years of my life in the small suburb of Saratoga, just a short distance from the Tank. I became a Sharks fan in 1992, having become hooked on KICU 36's broadcasts. Hockey was new and intriguing to me, and I had just started to learn how to ice skate, so it was sort of a confluence of factors for me. In hindsight, SportsChannel not being free at the time may have been just as well - I don't think I would have been a fan for very long had I been forced to endure each and every one of the 72 losses they compiled that year. Nevertheless, my love for the Sharks has endured despite my moving to San Diego for college, and then to New York for law school.

I followed the Sharks off and on for most of the 93-94 season, but really turned my attention to them when they made the playoffs. SportsChannel still wasn't free back then (there was none of this Fox Sports Net business quite yet), so I was forced to listen to the radio broadcasts of the games, which led to some strange circumstances - for example, I celebrated wildly when Jamie Baker scored the GWG in Game 7 against Detroit that year, but would not actually see the goal being scored on video until several years later. I was heartbroken when the Sharks lost to Toronto that year, but from that point on, I was hooked on hockey.

And so the years went on. I've been there for it all - from Ray Whitney's GWG in 2OT against Calgary in 1995 (and the subsequent Tennis Series against an angry Detroit squad) to Owen Nolan's called shot in the All Star Game in 97, from the Sharks tanking in 2000 so that they could face the Blues in Round 1 to Teemu Selanne missing an open net in game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals against Patrick Roy's Avalanche in 2002. I personally experienced the betrayal that led to the start of the Belfour chant, and I was around to see the start of the Sharks' relationship with Chris Pronger too (for the uninitiated: we don't boo Chris Pronger just because we don't like the way he plays). Patrick Marleau has been in the league for 13 years now, and I have been there to watch every single one (crazy, ain't it?). If you name a former Shark, odds are good that I could tell you approximately when he played for the team and my thoughts on his play. Heck, I could probably supply the names of a few Sharks that the large majority of people have never even heard of (Jan Caloun or Alexei Yegorov, anyone?). So believe me when I say that I'm a huge Sharks fan!

Be that as it may, I am also a highly opinionated person who calls things like I see them, so I will inevitably criticize players, coaches, and management for a wide variety of things. However, that opinionated nature is tempered by my ability to examine an issue from a lot of different angles and explore a lot of different viewpoints, which I think makes for some well-reasoned, even-keeled commentary.

So if you're a new visitor, welcome, and if you're an old ChompBoard denizen, welcome back! I hope you will enjoy reading this blog as much as I will enjoy writing it.