San Jose Sharks History
The California Golden Seals played at the Oakland Coliseum from 1967-1976 before relocating to Cleveland. While a failure at the box office and on the ice, the Seals sowed the seeds for the Sharks' arrival some 15 years later. With Wayne Gretzky's trade to Los Angeles in 1988, hockey fever spread across non-traditional markets, and San Jose was among the first cities into which the league ventured.
The Sharks initially played at the Cow Palace in Daly City in 1991 before moving into their current home, the SAP Center, in 1993. The new digs agreed with the team, as they experienced an NHL record 58-point increase over the prior season. Early stars such as Sergei Makarov, Pat Falloon and the Latvian duo of Sandis Ozolins and Arturs Irbe gave the Sharks an early level of respectability.
Gaining a reputation as giant-killers, the upstart Sharks dispatched the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings in the 1994 Western Conference Finals and the Presidents' Trophy-winning St. Louis Blues in 2000. The Sharks continued to flirt with success for the next decade, riding the talents of such star players as Owen Nolan, Marco Sturm, Evgeni Nabokov, Patrick Marleau, and Joe Thornton.
The Sharks went on to win the Presidents' Trophy again in 2009, and have captured a total of six Pacific Division titles and appeared in the Western Conference Finals four times.
San Jose Sharks Team Info
Conference: Western
Division: Pacific
Year Founded: 1991
Team Colors: Teal, Orange, Black
Team Rivals: Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche
San Jose Sharks at SAP Center
The San Jose Sharks have made the SAP Center in San Jose their home since 1993. The "Shark Tank," as it is affectionately known, is one of the most raucous buildings in the league. In 2006, the SAP Center, which also hosts concert events year-round in addition to hockey, sold 633,435 tickets to non-sporting events -- the most out of any venue in the Western United States and fourth-highest in the world.
