Nothing feels better than winning the first game of the season...unless of course it's against one of your bitterest rivals.

The San Jose Sharks kicked off their 25th anniversary season with a lopsided 5-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings at the SAP Center. The victory signified a positive start to what would become the most successful season in franchise history and would foreshadow what was to come in the spring.

It was also the beginning of both the Martin Jones and Pete Deboer era's in San Jose.
Jones made 19 saves in his Sharks debut and won his first start against the team that drafted him. DeBoer debuted behind the bench after replacing long-time head coach Todd McLellan after the Sharks missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in a decade.

Let's not forget the debut of Joonas Donskoi, who announced his arrival on scene with the first NHL goal of his career. Albeit a weird one...did he even touch the puck?



Joe Pavelski had a goal and two assists in his first game as the newly appointed Sharks' captain. Brent Burns and Joe Thornton chipped in with a goal and assist of their own.

San Jose had two power play goals and five different Sharks scored goals. This game was a microcosm of the entire 2015-16 season.

It was only the first game of the season, but it was significant for the Sharks moving forward. In a way, it helped the team move past a disastrous 2014-15 season and set in motion what would become a playoff series win for the ages with the Sharks first round defeat of the Kings....We will have more on that later in the countdown.

The opening night win marked the sixth straight for San Jose, the longest active streak in the NHL. It was also the second-straight against Los Angeles. San Jose can extend both streaks with another win over LA on Oct. 12.

The Sharks would go on to win the first four games of the season before suffering their first setback.

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Puck Drops on the 2016-17 season in....



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Thanks for reading,
Steve

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