Lose and Throw a Parade

Ray Whitney knows all about celebrations. That happens when you grow up in Edmonton — Alberta's city of champions — and you're a teenage stick boy for the Oilers during the mid-1980s. Paul Coffey and Wayne Gretzky were among Whitney's favorites. And not only because they were universal superstars, but both Coffey and Gretzky gave Whitney the time of day.

Fast forward to the Stanley Cup playoffs of 1994. The 21-year-old Whitney was starting to prove his NHL worth to the third-year San Jose Sharks. He and his teammates are devastated after losing Game 7 of a second-round playoff series against Toronto after the Sharks held a 3–2 edge.

Then imagine Whitney and his teammates' reaction when plans for a parade for the city's eliminated team were unveiled.

"I remember there being a parade for a reason. It's because they won the Stanley Cup," Whitney said. "I had never been part of a parade for coming close or having more success than you were ever supposed to have, I guess."

Yet that's exactly what happened. The city of San Jose threw the Sharks a parade.

Adoring South Bay fans wanted to show their appreciation for what the Sharks accomplished during that first season in San Jose. This after toiling for two well-documented losing campaigns at the Cow Palace while the team's sparkling new downtown arena was being constructed.

The fans wanted to say thank you for setting an NHL record with the greatest one-season turnaround to the next — a 58-point improvement in the standings. They wanted to shower a team that rallied from an 0–8–1 start to not only qualify for the playoffs for the first time, but honor a scrappy Sharks team that managed to knock off top-seed Detroit in a dramatic seven-game first-round series.

So despite overcast, threatening skies and cold temperatures, more than 10,000 fans braved an unseasonably ugly mid-May day to end up at Guadalupe Park — just a slap shot from nearby San Jose Arena — for a raucous celebration.

"After we got there it was like, 'What the hell is this for?'" recalled Rob Gaudreau, a forward on the team. "I think we all just said, 'The hell with it, they've been great to us.'

"I think we were all proud, and the city was proud. It was a very interesting time because they really did adopt everybody, and it couldn't have been a nicer place to play," he added. "I don't think I've had a parade period other than that."

As much of a long shot as the upstart Sharks appeared, they really were hitting on all cylinders in late season, and were very close to taking down the Maple Leafs in Round 2. Forward Johan Garpenlov struck iron in overtime of Game 6 at Toronto with a drive that had series winner written all over it.

Creative defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh led an odd-man break in period two of sudden death, but inexplicably passed on a quality chance from the slot to feed an unsuspecting teammate in the corner. Either chance goes in, or victory instead of defeat two nights later in Game 7, and San Jose would have been in the conference finals against Vancouver, the West's No. 7 seed.

Instead, the Sharks were home for the offseason, yet part of a parade.

It was no secret rookie coach Kevin Constantine needed a little coaxing to get into the spirit. As fate would have it, there was Constantine long after the ceremony signing autographs for the team's loyal fans.

"There was disappointment. There really was," recalled Jeff Odgers, hard-nosed forward on the team. "In most other hockey cities, you'd come home and pick up the paper to find out what you did wrong or what you should have done to win the series being up three games to two. Instead it's a celebration and people acted like you just won the Stanley Cup."

Name the Team

The San Jose Blades.

If early franchise executives had gone with the most suggested nickname, that's what the National Hockey League's 22 team would have been called.

Matt Levine was the yet-to-be-named Bay Area expansion hockey team's second employee. As a vice president in charge of business operations, Levine had the...