Sharks, Kings and Ducks in NHL Playoffs: What It Means for Hockey in California

For the third time in NHL history, two California-based teams—the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings—will play each other in a playoff series.

In 1969 the short-lived Oakland Seals played the Kings in the quarterfinals, losing in the quarterfinal 3-4 after finishing second in the West. The Sharks faced the rival Anaheim Ducks in 2008, losing 2-4 in the first round.

“[It’s] better for teams down south like LA and Anaheim to promote the game more by getting in the playoffs,” says forward Devin Setoguchi, who has been with the Sharks organization since 2005. “[It] will help California hockey grow…in the community.”

Joe Pavelski, a forward from Plover, WI, is a partial owner of the Janesville (Wisconsin) Jets, a junior hockey team in the North American Hockey League (NAHL). The NAHL, a hockey league for 16 20-year-old players who aspire to play college hockey, has a team located in Fresno, CA and two teams in Texas.

He likes the way youth hockey has taken off as a result of California hockey’s success at the professional level.

“It has to start at the youth level and you see here in the facility…the four rinks going non-stop,” he says, referring to the activity at Sharks’ Ice, the team’s practice facility. “They’re always trying to find areas with more ice.”

Pavelski joined the Sharks in 2006 after stints with the Waterloo (Iowa) Black Hawks junior hockey team and the University of Wisconsin-Madison collegiate hockey team. The Midwesterner has enjoyed his experience playing hockey in California.

“This ain’t Kansas anymore,” says Pavelski in jest, referring to Dorothy’s infamous line in The Wizard of Oz. “Obviously, the California teams have been good for a while.

“You saw Anaheim win the Cup a few years aback and San Jose has been there for awhile, we just need to break through, and LA’s been an up-and-coming team and it’s good to see.”

He believes that, in time, collegiate hockey will migrate west to California.

“There’s a lot of club teams and it sounds like they get pretty good crowds,” he says. “You have the Colorado teams out here and there’s already a few divisions that are getting kind of reformed.”

Colorado College and the University of Denver both have successful hockey programs. In Alaska, the Universities in Fairbanks and Anchorage both have teams.

“[You] could throw the Alaska teams in there [and] you could make it happen,” he says. “It would be pretty cool.”

Defensemen Marc-Eduard Vlasic and Jason Demers, who grew up minutes away from each other in Montreal, have enjoyed being part of hockey’s proliferation in California.

“At first glance people wouldn’t really say California is a hockey hotbed,” says Demers, “but lately, in a few of the cities here, it’s been good and Los Angeles is really big on hockey now.”

The Kings, who have been in LA since the 1967 expansion, hosted the NHL Draft last year and the Ducks, who joined the league in 1993, became the only Californian team to win the Stanley Cup in 2007.

“It’s good to have three teams (in the playoffs) from out here,” says Vlasic. “A lot of Californians will be watching the playoffs. It’s good to have hockey out west and hopefully more young kids will start playing.”

“It’s cool to see hockey grow out here,” says rookie forward Logan Couture. “Obviously, growing up in Canada it’s huge and every kid plays hockey, but to see the minor hockey…really grow over the past couple years I’ve been out here is awesome to see.”

In the past two Californian playoff series the Bay Area team has lost to their SoCal rivals. The Sharks will look to curb that trend tomorrow when they face the Kings at 7:00 p.m.

Tom Schreier is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand or from official interview materials from the San Jose Sharks.