We went to the Philadelphia Flyers at San Jose Sharks game tonight, and it was quite odd to see the Shark Tank so empty. After all, we covered the team for six seasons while writing for a CBS subsidiary sports site, and in that time period, the arena now known as the SAP Center was always hopping and packed to the brim. Even in the press box, seats were hard to come by. Now? Even big local media ignores the Sharks.

The good news is that the Sharks won, 2-1, after giving up 10 goals in each of their prior two games and starting the season winless over the first 11 games. Goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood was amazing, and he had to be as the San Jose skaters were outshot, 39-19, by the Flyers guys. Thus, the team avoids some bad history in terms of the worst start ever for an NHL season, but the year is still going to be a long one.

San Jose has scored just 14 goals in 12 games this year, and that puts an enormous amount of pressure on any goalie to be perfect. And that’s just not practical for any team’s success. It’s the same idea as the pitcher in baseball who knows his team can’t score, so he tells himself he has to shutout the opponent to have any chance at winning. That magnifies each and every moment way beyond possible/sane management.

The Sharks are not a good team: in watching them live, it reminded us of a moment in our youth watching the Soviet Union hockey team in the Olympics against the U.S. amateurs. Not 1980, mind you, as that was a crazy anomaly; the moment we’re remembering is from the 1988 Calgary Olympics, when the USSR beat the USA, 7-5. The Americans had talent but no discipline; the Soviets had it all on the ice, and it showed.

We remembered that viewer experience from 35 years ago while watching this game tonight. San Jose will get better, but it may not win 11 games this year—which is the franchise low set in its second season way back when the NHL played an 84-game schedule. The 2000 Atlanta Thrashers hold the record for least wins in an 82-game season with 14 victories. We do not expect this San Jose team to do it, as it just asks too much.

Truthfully, we had a great time at the game despite the low attendance: only 10,074 tickets were sold for this one, and nowhere near that number of people even showed up. We suspect the Sharks will fudge their numbers and never report attendance lower than 10,000 at home this year, but maybe interest will return if San Jose can win a few more games: the No. 1 overall pick in the draft next year can help the franchise.