I know this was achieved Tuesday evening way up in St. John’s but it has been a crazy week and I wanted to throw in the highlights of the celebration from Thursday night. It would’ve been cool if they won it at home. This was not meant to be. The LA Kings set the trend by winning in five, followed by the Spurs doing the same. My Stars couldn’t let this challenge go by.
Some people may pooh pooh my team’s accomplishments due to them being a development or minor-league organization. OK, sure, you have a point but Austin is never going to have a major franchise in any of the four big commercial sports (football, baseball, basketball or hockey, soccer? Who cares!) since UT is the 800-pound gorilla. Plus the jerk owner of the Dallas Cowboys will always keep out any NFL team from relocating in what he considers his backyard.
Back to the joy!
The Stars ended a perfect season by winning the coveted trophy. It was a struggle to keep going. Often the number one team chokes in the playoffs (see the St. Louis Blues). I would say the Stars almost did this against the Marlies. Thankfully they turned it around in game seven with six unanswered goals after being down 2-0.
In addition to being the champs, Travis Morin won Playoff MVP to coincide with this year’s AHL MVP. At the rally there was a ton of trophies on the table. The Stars practically monopolized the league in goodies.
You can see the fun, silliness and cheers via this link. My favorite was when Mike Hedden got his turn to speak, he chose to just pour his beer into the Cup and drink from it before sitting back down. I never gave Cristopher Nilstorp’s penalty minutes much thought neither, he’s the team’s leader for goalies. He’s a far cry from Ed Belfour so don’t get your hopes up.
Now comes the sad news which often follows whenever a team wins or loses especially with development teams. Our coach Willie Desjardins wasn’t present because he was interviewing for the vacancy in Vancouver which you know he landed. GM Scott White will be looking for a replacement, again. Contracts will be ending for many by July 1. Mike Hedden already planned ahead, he’s off to the KHL. As crucial as he was to our success, Mike has too many games under his belt and we have a surplus of vets (the AHL only allows four people with 240-plus pro games to play each night, goalies are exempt alongside NHLers sent down for conditioning). I think Nilstorp has a good shot at the backup slot in Dallas next season and Aaron Rome was bought out to free up cap space, this means we will lose a defenseman, smart money is on Patrik Nemeth. Others will leave to for opportunities to land NHL slots or go to Europe. We’ll see how much of the core will remain intact in 10 weeks.
I will be comforted when we raise our new banners to the rafters to join the two we have.
Closing out, here’s how far my playoff beard progressed!
Contrary to my expression, I’m not mad, just sweaty from exercising one last time with the beard.
This is how much “hair” my beard was after I trimmed it. Looks like an angry hedgehog. Some whiskers were about two inches in length.