At this point, I really don't care. I've loved this team since the beginning, but the constant struggle that was the past decade of Sharks hockey - high expectations, crushing defeat, and now constant ridicule - has taken a bit of a toll. I'm tired of the same old song and dance, and, like most of you here, I'm ready for change mostly for the sake of change. Something different. A new face of the team, new expectations, and new excitement.
I don't want to see them suck for half a decade just for a few new shiny prospects, but at the same time, I've grown weary of seeing Thornton and Co. come up short, never quite meeting expectations. As terrible as being a bottom feeder would be, at least it's a shift from what we've been doing for the past decade.
I was born in San Jose and a lot of my family still lives there. I'm a Sharks fan because they are from my hometown, and I've always been proud of the rabid fanbase that supported the team, in the middle of California, from day one. We didn't need to attract bandwagon fans and I loved that.
But my need for change in this team has gotten so bad that, if they do move to Seattle, I can honestly say I wouldn't mind. They'd be closer to my current location than they are now. It would, again, be different. Worse? Probably. I can't imagine Seattle fans fostering an environment quite like that in the Shark Tank. They'd have left my hometown. I'd still long for the days of the original Sharks, but it would be a departure from the status quo, and sadly, that's all I'm really looking for at this point.
So I guess at the end of the day, what I'm really looking for is something different, no matter what it is. It seems like most of you feel the same way, even if different makes the team worse.
