Game 1: "We Want Tacos!"

I don't want tacos.  Fuck Jack-in-the-Box tacos!  We've all eaten them, sure, in our weaker moments, at two o'clock in the morning.  We're desperate--but that's just it!  Jack-in-the-Box tacos are sold two-for-$0.99 and are only charitably called tacos in the first place.

Meet the new Sharks food promotion: The Jack-in-the-Box Taco Minute!

If the Sharks score in the second period's final minute, fans in attendance have the opportunity to text in a code for a coupon for two free Jack-in-the-Box tacos.


I hate this for so many reasons.  First of all, as I've written, Jack-in-the-Box tacos are both shitty and dirt-cheap.
Second, the ratio of advertising to payout is completely lopsided.  Previously, when the Sharks got three goals at a home game, the crowd would start yelling for pizza.  Only when the Sharks scored a fourth goal would they announce the "4 in the Net, Pizza You Get!" promotion and the crowd would shout "Pizza!" in time with the music during the following commercial break.  Now, Jack-in-the-Box is going to have their chintzy promotion announced at least once per game during the last TV time-out of the second period, regardless of whether they give away any free tacos..  It's also much less likely to happen than for the Sharks to score four goals.  Despite being announced every game, this isn't going to pay out more than a few times per season.
This promotion is almost exactly like the one the Kings have with McDonald's for McFlurry's.  The difference is: it's shittier.
One last thing about this promotion and perhaps the worst: in order to claim this prize, you have to text in a promotion code for a coupon.  I encourage anyone and everyone at those games to publicize that promotion code widely, even if it only goes to the first 17,000 people who text it in.  If people at the game lose out on it, so much the better!  Hopefully it will move them to complain about this god-awful replacement for Round Table's awesome promotion.  Fuck you, Amici's!  And Fuck you, Jack-in-the-Box!  I'd rather have no promotion!  Your pathetic promotion makes me feel cheap.

Also, the Sharks beat the Coyotes 6-3, after going up 4-0 and then 6-1.  The Marleau,Thornton,Pavelski line looked very good.  Other than that, I'm refraining from judgment for the following three reasons: (1) It's the first game of the season.  (2) It's an outlier in the schedule and there isn't the opportunity to build any psychic momentum.  (3) It was against the Phoenix Coyotes, who lost most of the people I knew on their roster this summer.  Kyle Turris is still holding out on them.  The speculation I hear is that he wants a trade.

The three stars of the game aren't giving away signed sticks this year.  According to Mark Emmons of the San Jose Mercury News, this is because the glass is much taller on the new boards and the Sharks didn't want parents dropping their kids whist trying to get a stick.

Sharks now 1-0-0 (W-L-T)