"It was great getting to know him a little bit. He came in from Illinois, a little ways away," Misa said on Friday. "It was cool to spend some time with him, and (with) everything he's been through recently, it's humbling for me. It was cool to spend some time out there with him."
Janes is currently in remission from stage 3 Ewing sarcoma, a type of cancer that forms inside bones or the soft tissue around them. He grew up playing hockey in Pekin, Illinois, and his love for the sport has never stopped.
"I'm super blessed. It's a humbling experience, and seeing everything he's gone through, I'm just happy he's doing better," Misa said. "He actually was asking me what I was thinking on the breakaway yesterday. I was like, ‘Yeah, Zach, I know, I know.’"
Misa had a breakaway in the first period of the Sharks’ 3-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday that was stopped by goaltender Leevi Merilainen.
It was a connection with Sharks goalie coach Thomas Speer that made the trip happen. A mutual friend of Janes and Speer put them in touch, and Speer helped pass along Zach's wish to the Sharks Foundation.
"I've never met Zach,” Speer said. “There’s no personal connection there, but a friend of mine who knew him reached out, just saying, ‘Hey, it's a dream of his to come out to the Sharks. He's a big Misa (and Macklin) Celebrini fan and all that stuff.’ All I did was plug in the foundation, the guys here, and then they kind of took it from there.”
The friend who got in touch with Speer is former University of Notre Dame captain Bill Maday.
"Played hockey with him as a kid in Chicago," Speer said of Maday. "We played AAA together, played together for four or five years. Stayed in touch every once in a while. It was just very random. He reached out, and it was pretty simple."
Both Misa and Speer recognize the importance of these moments with professional athletes.
"I think the Sharks Foundation doesn't get enough credit for what they do," Speer said. "There's a lot of people that are going through stuff, and it's hard for the players and the coaches to really think about that stuff and then be proactive and entertaining people that need help in that sense. The foundation does such a good job of taking that off of our hands.”
Misa said he gave Janes a signed stick, and planned to give him a jersey following Saturday's game against the Ottawa Senators. The Sharks lost 5-1, but Janes was by the locker room after the game with his family talking with Misa after he scored San Jose’s only goal.
"The foundation, they do a great job setting stuff up like this," Misa said. "It's great for not just them, but for us too to get to know them, spend some time with them. Hopefully (I) get to do more of that in the future."
