Forget about the Redskins . . .
Forget about the Eagles . . .
Forget about Marchment . . .
Forget about everything you knew about rivalries.
This is the first game of the rest of your lives.
|
Joe
Lopez
|
Devin Pike |
| Losses
make me bitter.
Playoff losses tend to make me bitter beyond words. When the Stars lost to the hated Red Wings last season in the Conference Finals, I did manage to find a word for what I was feeling: Inconsolable. |
|
I was be-bopping down
I-30 at a jaunty clip, heading toward the promised land. No, not Cabaret
Royale (not this time, anyway), but Reunion Arena, the land of glass and
ice, of stick and puck, where my bretheren awaited me with open arms and
strained vocal cords.
And beer. A whole lot of beer. |
| I
say this mainly because of the accolaids afforded to one spare-to-fair goaltender
by the name of Chris Osgood.
Also, because I find Red Wings fans some of the most insufferable bastards I come across in my life. Them and Packers' fans, but I digress. |
|
I didn't think I would be able to go to the Halloween match-up between the Stars and the Red Wings, since my duties at Tom Hicks' other local tax shelter, the Ballpark at Arlington, would require me to babysit the people like myself who couldn't afford the ticket. That changed when the Dark Angel Travis (not the squid) hooked me up with a nice seat in the corner of the second deck. I'd miss the majority of the first period, but at least I'd be there when the final buzzer blew. | ||
| I
will concede that the Wings were a better team than us then. But
only because if the Stars had lost any more players, the Magical Mystical
One himself would have been out there taking face-offs for real.
Sadly, at the start of Saturday night's game it looked like the Red Army would repeat as Stars-killers. |
|
Unfortunately, my Stars faithful would be mostly in front of me... three rows of Red Wings fans were ensconsced behind me, and with a two-goal lead midway through the first period, they smelled blood on the ice. | ||
| Down 2-0 before half of the first period had elapsed, Reunion Arena once again threatened to turn into The Joe (South). Only a few small things got in the way: The Stars and their fans. |
|
Little did they know the Stars' secret weapon had arrived -- me. The Stars have an 8-2-1 record with me in the building, and I was not about to let my lads down. Not on this day of destiny. |
