Sharks’ (Other) Win Song Is Uniting Locker Room

Kaapo Kahkonen re-ignited a locker room controversy after Thursday night’s 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues.

Well, actually, I did.

Kahkonen had already expressed his displeasure last week with the San Jose Sharks’ win song “SkeeYee”, from ironically, St. Louis rapper Sexyy Redd.

There’s a Divide in Sharks Locker Room…a Musical Divide

So I was teasing when I asked him, after his 44-save performance, “As the winning goalie, do you get to pick the win song?”

Joking not joking, Kahkonen responded, “It was nice because I had to stay out for the Three Stars, so I didn’t have to hear the first win song. I came back when they were playing the second [win song], the better one.”

Sharks Locker Room: Everybody’s Got Jokes After a Big Win

So what is the San Jose Sharks’ second win song?

This one comes courtesy of DJ Tomas Hertl:

“Freed From Desire”, from Italian singer and songwriter Gala, was released in 1996. The Eurodance hit has become a football, I mean soccer staple.

So much so that France, England, Switzerland, Poland, New Zealand, and Switzerland chose “Freed From Desire” as their goal song at the most recent men’s and women’s World Cup.

“It really brings people together from different backgrounds and countries,” Gala herself told the Palatinate.

And it’s brought together the San Jose Sharks locker room.

It’s not just a European thing, though Finn Kahkonen and German Sturm came out in hearty support of “Freed From Desire”. In fact, everyone I’ve talked to in the Sharks room likes it.

“I don’t even know what it was called,” Mario Ferraro said. “I liked it too though.”

But “SkeeYee”? It’s genuinely split the room.

Of course, alternate captain Ferraro, Anthony Duclair, and Luke Kunin, who picked “SkeeYee” as the San Jose Sharks’ win song, are fans. Nikolai Knyzhov – who spent his formative years in Arizona – was the only Shark to be able to ID the song for me off the top of his head. He admitted that it had a catchy hook, and said he saw Sexyy Red open for Drake recently.

Alternate captain Hertl, obviously wanting to keep the room together, declined comment when I asked his opinion of “SkeeYee”.

Kahkonen, Sturm, and Mackenzie Blackwood are virulently anti-“SkeeYee”.

How about from out of the mouths of babes?

Maybe William Eklund, the youngest Shark, could bridge this locker room fracture? On one hand, he was raised in Sweden, but on the other hand, he’s just 21, smack dab in Sexxy Red’s target demographic.

He laughed, “The lyrics are so stupid.”