It’s been a tough stretch recently for San Jose Sharks fans. After 10 straight postseason appearances, the Sharks will miss the playoffs for a second straight season. Even during the times where the Sharks made it past the regular season, the Sharks made just one Stanley Cup appearance, losing in 2016 to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
However, through the good and recent bad, the Sharks have always had a proud fanbase that, for the most part, stays tried and true to the teal. Here are some of the most famous Sharks fans:
Metallica
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The Bay Area-based heavy metal rock band has been connected to the San Jose Sharks for quite some years now. The band’s hit song “Seek and Destroy” is the current Sharks’ entrance song, sounding through the Shark Tank as the players enter the ice through the shark mouth. It was Metallica guitarists James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett who blasted the national anthem in San Jose before Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals in 2016.
And hey, not everyone gets their own night dedicated to them. The Sharks put on “Metallica Night” in January of 2015. The rock crew got their own customized Metallica-themed Sharks jersey, as well as getting to drop the ceremonial puck before faceoff.
Steve Wozniak
San Jose Sharks
Do you consider yourself a diehard Sharks fan? If yes, are you diehard enough to drive 1,300 miles to watch them play? Because that’s what kind of level Steve Wozniak is on when it comes to Sharks fandom. The co-founder of Apple drove that distance to Denver in his Tesla to watch the San Jose Sharks play the Colorado Avalanche in Game 6 of the Western Conference second-round playoff series.
That’s some kind of commitment for sure. While the Sharks lost Game 6 in OT, San Jose rallied in Game 7, winning to advance to the Western Conference Finals, where the team lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues. Hopefully the Sharks get back to the postseason soon and give Wozniak another chance to rack up the miles to see his team play.
Neil Young
This one might be tough for some Sharks fans to swallow. Young grew up near Winnipeg in Canada, but when the Winnipeg Jets moved to Phoenix to become the now-Arizona Coyotes, that left Young without any allegiance to a team. After moving to California to further his music career, the singer-songwriter eventually became a Sharks fan, and was a season-ticket holder for years.
However, the Jets came back in 2011, when the Atlanta Thrashers announced they would be relocating to Winnipeg ahead of the 2011-12 NHL season, and Young took his fandom back across the border to his hometown team.
Bryan Murphy contributed to this story.