NHL trolls Sharks by making them attend Kings' banner-raising ceremony
Further proof the league hates the Sharks.
As if watching the Los Angeles Kings win their second Stanley Cup in three seasons after trailing San Jose 3-0 in the first round wasn't bad enough, the NHL's schedule maker has decided to empty several shakers worth of salt into the Sharks' still-open wound.
The Sharks will be forced to bear witness to the Kings raising their Cup banner to the Staples Center rafters prior to Los Angeles' home opener next season, according to the slate of games announced by the league earlier today. Opening night of the 2014-15 NHL season will be October 8th, when the Kings will host the Sharks, and commemorate the Cup win that the Sharks should have never allowed to happen, in the last of the day's four games.
At least we can look forward to Nazem Kadri, Mike Brown and captain Ryan Callahan leading the Sharks to a gritty, hard-fought 5-1 loss. They might get smoked by the Kings harder than ever before, but at least they'll have been there for each other and that's what really counts.
But I digress. San Jose will have its own home opener three nights later against the Winnipeg Jets in a game that should feature more West Side Story puns than any other home opener in Sharks history. The league will release the rest of its 2014-15 schedule tomorrow at 1PM.