Surviving Hockey Season

Well, I survived my first season as a hockey fan, even though my “season” consisted of about two months, so let’s wait until the end of next season to see if I can really survive.

Now that the Dallas Stars defeated my Seattle Kraken, I’m 100% in on the Stars to go all the way and win the Stanley Cup.

For those who don’t remember my last column, I’m a fan of the Seattle Kraken because my younger daughter, Nicole, works for the team. Blood is thicker than water, so my loyalties will be with the Kraken, as long as she still works for them.

I was fortunate enough to attend Game 5 in Dallas. The day of the game I received an email telling me that they had one seat reserved for me in the press box, so I drove to Dallas and man was it a blast. I realized that I hadn’t been to a live hockey game since I was a kid. All I remember from that was a bunch of fighting, which doesn’t happen a lot these days because the league cracked down on excessive fighting.

So, that was actually my first real live hockey game. I was able to watch the game as a fan now and I’m even more impressed with these athletes than I was just watching them on TV. To be able to do what they do on a thin blade, and not snap their ankles in half, astonishes me. The speed, the way they stop and turn, and manage to pass that tiny puck to each other, then, shoot it into a net, where a grown man wearing every possible form of protection and two giant baseball gloves is absolutely amazing. Oh, and that grown man, known as the “goalie,” is almost the exact same size as the net they are trying to hit that puck into.

I look at soccer, and the net in that sport is 100 times larger than the one tiny man trying to guard it. How soccer scores aren’t regularly 120-118 also blows me away. How can a soccer game end 0-0? Do the players have to be legally blind to qualify for the team? I’m joking of course, so please don’t be offended if you’re a big soccer fan or a former player.

I couldn’t run my full-figured body up and down that field if my life depended on it. And, actually, I think one time running up and down a soccer field would probably end my life.

So, now I can get back to my one true sports love, my Chicago Cubs, who actually look fairly decent so far for a team that has been rebuilding since our one championship in 2016. Before that, we hadn’t won a championship since 1908.

So, starting Friday night (last night), the Stars will now take on the Las Vegas Golden Kniights in the Western Conference Finals. The winner of that best of seven series will go to the Stanley Cup Finals and battle for Lord Stanley’s Cup. GO STARS!