Last season I felt rather slighted by the AHL. In our inaugural year, the Stars won the Western Conference and were serious contenders for the Calder Cup. Pretty damned amazing for a city that never had an AHL-level team before. Well, the players were no slouches themselves. I know the cities with NBA franchises have to defer to the other sport when it comes to scheduling (three are in our division with three more in our conference) but as defending champs, the Stars should’ve been given the right to open at home, not in San Antonio, again.
The Stars were aligned this time (pun intended) because the AHL gave them their opportunity. After losing all three preseason matches, my team came out swinging and didn’t stop until the final buzzer. I knew the preseason stuff wasn’t an indication of how they’d play, many we saw weren’t on the final roster, theses were guys on the bubble fighting to get a spot or be ready to play ECHL hockey in Idaho, Europe or return to juniors. Once Dallas sent down the veterans they may call on later, the 2011-12 Stars were set. I just didn’t get to meet them last Tuesday thanks to being ill.
Anyway, last year’s initial 3-0 victory was great. I caught it via Internet-based radio. Tonight’s 7-0 drubbing with the first goal (Fortunus!) during the initial 70-80 seconds was incredible. It’s hard to believe net-minder Bachmann was beat out for the backup gig by Andrew Raycroft or maybe head coach Gulutzman would prefer to give Bachmann playing time over benchwarming. Outside the defense, the Stars’ offense was impressive given the skinny about the Stars being a defensive-oriented team under the new coach Jeff Pyle. The Barons made some mistakes, especially in the first period when they had three players in the box yet these Stars capitalized on it with TWO goals instead of over-thinking the powerplay.
By the time the score hit 5-0 it was like watching a videogame with the cheats activated So the crowd focused on hoping to see Bachmann earn another shutout.
One down, 75 to go. If my Stars can repeat such performances for about 10 games, win another 25 adequately and lose 7-10 in OT, I think we will have the playoffs cinched.