Intro Post

For starters, a little about me…

A resident of Dallas from 1993 – 2004, I held either a partial or full season ticket for the Stars from 1998 up to the lock out. Since then, I’ve lived in areas with a greatly reduced hockey presence – central Illinois and most recently, central Virginia. So this will hopefully fill the void of hockey conversation I’ve found around the office and in the community.

Both in Dallas and since, I follow the Stars and the league through the cable package, websites, and news papers.

In 2002 I contributed occasionally to sportspages.com. Essentially, it was a multi-user blog, before blogs were popular. I’ve checked today, and I am guessing that the site is no longer running. Too bad, there were some very good contributors. Obviously, I didn’t stick with it, so I guess I can’t complain.

More recently, I’ve found myself becoming hooked to a hand full of Stars & NHL blogs, and doing a somewhat decent job of keeping one up for my family. Hey-why not give this a try, huh? If nothing else, there’ll be record of how wrong I am on some predictions! :o) And maybe Blaze will get involved too! (I’m never above shameless begging!)

This will be a test of sorts to see if I’m more dedicated this time around. I must admit, that I more than likely won’t have the time to make daily contributions, but I hope to create a forum for discussion, banter, and keeping handy all those links I love and think others will too.

I’m sure I’ll mix in some more of what’s going on in the sports world in general, so I guess it’s only fair to indicate that I am also a Bears fan and casual Cubs fan. As you can guess, I count on the Stars to provide the playoff experience among my “top three.”

Yes, the current banner picture is one that I took. I’ve managed about one game a year since moving, and this was last March in St. Louis. A losing affair for the Stars, but a memorable “guys weekend” none the less.


Moving on…

Hockey is currently on a two day holiday recess, which is great for the athletes, their family, and such, but provides us little in the news to discuss. Today’s Dallas Morning News featured a great look at the second year captain Brendan Morrow, and his coming into his own this year. That is one of my daily reads along with the blog maintained by Mike Heika. Great, up to the minute, news there.

This month also marks one year since the tragic loss of Laura Gainey, daughter of Bob Gainey who will forever be a key part of Stars history. CBC ran a special titled “Overboard” chronicling the events, and their website includes an interview with him.

NHL.com brings us a feature about goalie masks. Nothing really new here, but I always enjoy checking them all out. It will also be neat to follow the conversion of a football stadium to hockey. A bit gimmicky, but if it brings viewers away from bowl games on New Year’s Day, good for hockey.

While linked along the side as well, Razor is always fun is he gets credit for leading me to the Overboard story as well.

All of that said, Merry Christmas to all, the NHL returns Wednesday with the Stars on top of the pacific, second in the west, and at home against Minnesota, which always makes for interesting TV. Sometimes I even wear my Northstars Teeshirt!