Hometown Heroes

 

Well, it's done...the Stanley Cup Finals have ended, hockey is over for a few months.

My Dallas Stars did not end up on the "Stanley Cup Champions" side of the equation, but they're winners in the hearts of every Stars fan worth his or her salt.

The 2019-2020 season lasted 367 days and the boys in Victory Green (that's the actual color name :0)) played the whole way.

They struggled, overcame challenges along the way, and played in the two biggest events of any hockey season--the Winter Classic on New Years day in front of 85K fans; and the Stanley Cup Playoffs & Finals in front of no fans. Only three players, all Stars, were able to have family inside the bubble due to heavy Canadian government restrictions and the COVID-testing hoops required by the NHL.

The Tampa Bay Lightning may have been the most skilled team on the ice, but they weren't the best team, and sadly the injuries stacked up a little too high against the Stars in this final series.

They were the underdogs every step of the way and few--including me--though they'd make it past the first round. Same for the second. Ditto the third. But then they did and I finally believed they could have pulled it off. And I still believe that if those injuries to key players hadn't happened we could have.

But they still deserve all the credit for digging deep in the most bizarre set of circumstances and all the love and respect and pride for doing what they did for themselves, for their fans, and all of DFW.