by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN JOSE–It only took 25 years for the San Jose Sharks to make it to the finals of their league. The Stanley Cup (French: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff winner. Originally commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the trophy is named for Lord Stanley of Preston then–Governor General of Canada, who awarded it to Canada’s top-ranking amateur ice hockey club, which the entire Stanley family supported, with the sons and daughters playing and promoting the game. The first Cup was awarded in 1893 to Montreal HC and subsequent winners from 1893 to 1914 were determined by challenge games and league play.

The Sharks are playing the Pittsburgh Penguins. In the animal kingdom, a Penguin is a mid-day snack for a Shark, like a little piece of chocolate at the office at 3PM. But this is not the animal kingdom, it is The National Hockey League. I covered the Sharks 25 years ago when they first began playing in the NHL in 1991. I remember their first game”home”(while they were building their San Jose Arena)and it took place at the Cow Palace in Daly City, on October 5, 1991 and they lost to the Vancouver Canucks 5-2.

The night before(October 4)they played their very first game in their history in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. It has been a long ride on the ice for the franchise, who has been solidly supported by their loyal fans, who regularly fill the SAP Arena during the season. It has been a long way, plus half-dozen of General Managers for Telemundo since those days when with a camera person I did “on site”reports, and live shots from the place where they were building that arena, just across the street from the San Jose train station. Here we are today, 25 years later, with the Sharks in the Stanley Cup.

The Sharks lost their first two games in Pittsburgh and now the attention turns to San Jose, and the Sharks could be without their first-line forward Thomas Hertl for Game 3 the Stanley Cup tomorrow 5PM (our time)at the SAP Arena. Hertll skated briefly and slowly, but then left when practice began. The problem? – his lower left leg. Game three, right now is crucial for the Sharks, and if they loose, they could be eliminated on Monday(Game 4, also in San Jose). This would not be a good ending for their season, specially if they are eliminated at home. The SAP Arena will be rocking tomorrow and also next Monday. The Bay Area which now is the epicenter of the sports world, with the Warriors just some 35 miles north of highway 880 going for their second consecutive NBA title.

For the San Jose Sharks it is their very first time, just like when you buy a new car, that great smell of new, something that you never forget. Good friend, hockey legend and one of the real hockey pioneers in the Bay Area Len Shapiro probably never thought that the Stanley Cup would be played in the Bay Area. Len was with the Oakland Seals of the the National Hockey League, who became the California Golden Seals in 1970. They played their home games at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena(in those days most venues did not have names of companies). Len Shapiro would tell you all the problems that the Seals had at the gate, they were really never successful and eventually moved to Cleveland in 1976 to become the Cleveland Barons. Many times Len and I were seated together at the Sharks press box and as he remembered the Seals, he told me they could only dream of drawing 17,000 plus for every game. Of course during those days San Jose was a little town, on the way to Los Angeles. Not anymore, San Jose is Silicon Valley, it is the center of technology in the world, and the most prosperous area in Northern California.

Congratulations to the San Jose Sharks for making it to the prestigious Stanley Cup, now, if they could comeback and win it…

For me this is the first Stanley Cup I am covering.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is covering the NHL Stanley Cup Finals for Telemundo Telenotcias San Jose and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com