Fanataics sing through final preseason game

Saturday night closed the pre-season for the Dallas Stars, and the Stars won with an authorative 5-1 score. But this isn't about the Stars, it's about the Fanatics and their visiting brotheren, the FC Dallas Inferno.

Not only did they visit, but they brought their own spirit, their own chants, and their own singing voices to the stadium. The crew fit well as they quickly introduced themselves with a "Who are we" chant in the opening minute of the game and immediately the Fanatics & Inferno began filling the stadium with the routy chanting of "LEHTS GO STARS", "LETS GO DALLAS LETS GO" and others, including some new ones.

But then something different happened, there was more than just a chant from section 332, instead there was a melody, a song. While they may not have carried into the opposite ends of the arena, the base line from "Seven Nation Army", the theme song from "Dallas", and many other custom chants including "Tampa Bay is full of nothing but Senior Citizens" and "I'm Dallas Till I Die".

While singing is not an ice hockey tradition in America, it was taken well and the Fanatics quickly joined in. But, what was the most successful part of the evening?

Hey Bill, How much time's left
One Minute, One minute remaining in the third period
Thank you!
You're Welcome

THN Looks at Pacific Division

Last week Adam Proteau of The Hockey News looked at the Pacific Division and made some interesting choices. It's hard to see him place MY Stars 4th in the division, but it's hard to make preseason rankings too.

As expected the Ducks & Sharks are listed as 1 & 2 respectively, and the 'yotes are in 5th place, what may (or may not) suprise some of you is he ranked the Kings as 3rd with playoff hopes and the stars as 4th without.

Really thinking about it though, The Kings & Sharks made decent moves to show hockey prognosticators that they mean business this year, and the Stars did not. However, I don't agree with the suggestion that the Stars aren't already set up for a stellar year. I said it over and over, Scott said it time and again, and we're here to tell you again, our biggest problem with scoring was injuries. We have the very same roster that started the season with the Stars' best season start to date - and as long as Modano doesn't pull his groin and Morrow doesn't put his wrist under another skate ... we're set for another great opening stretch.

Yes, some of our biggest rivals look to have made some very serious moves in the off season, but so did we: we got healthy. Check out the article, what do you think? Are you putting the stars out of playoff contention this year? Do you think the Ducks are going to get 2 straight division titles? Let us know before the next cast and we'll include your thoughts in the show!

Let the games begin!

So, after a long summer we will actually get to see the Stars in action tonight back in the AAC against the St. Louis Blues. On top of that, there is a double header with a rookie game starting at 4pm. I think it is great that the fans will get a real taste of our farm team talent. A lot of the players playing in the rookie game will be either going back to college to play for their respective schools or play for the Iowa Stars this season. The young Stars and young Blues have actually already met less than two weeks ago in the Rookie Tournament. The Blues took the first game so look for the boys to bounce back after a great start to training camp with the veterans.

7:30 can't come soon enough for me to see my favorite team face off with the Blues (my second favorite team!). So what if it is preseason? Sometimes, no, all of the time I laugh at the critics, writers and bloggers who predict how each team is going to do during the season without even watching a single preseason game. Sure the teams won't be going 100% all the time like they would in the regular season and a lot of the players on the ice will be rookies trying to make the team, but wait until some of the preseason games are played before predicting postseason seeds! So here's to laughing at myself - my prediction: FUN!

- Scooter

Pronger causes Ducks' first pre-season loss

Call it what you want, that's fine, but Pronger's bad behavior has once again cost his team, last years Stanley Cup Champions, a loss that they'd much rather forget.

Seriously, think about it. You're the quote-un-quote best team in the league last season; you show up to your cross-town rival, one of the worst teams in the league last season; and you lose. You not only lose, but you can count the goals cost by a single player, and they total more than half your opponents total goals.

The first goal was a powerplay goal during after he was called for interference. The second happened 3 seconds after Pronger's hooking penalty expired. The third 9 seconds after another interference call. Say what you will but when a goal happens within the first 10 seconds of a players penalty expires I still blame it on the player; it's his fault the team had to play with four players, and its his fault they had to adjust from four to five again.

I'm not saying this means a damn thing; pre-season games are worthless because the veterans dont' put their whole selves into them and the rookies are getting chances they normally wouldn't have. However ... do you think Pronger will sleep well tonight? Tell you one thing, if he were in the mob, he'd find himself in a gutter, or at least having a harder time breathing.

--j

It's Time!

Well, I just got back from the Season Ticket Holders Luncheon hosted by The Dallas Stars and boy was it good. The only thing missing was the players and I was told by President Jim Lites that the boys were up in Frisco at the Dr. Pepper Stars Center practicing. Ralph Strangis was on hand to emcee the event which of course made it even more enjoyable and hilarious.



So as we savored our filet mignon and chocolate strawberry cheesecake, Mr. Lites answered live questions from everything about how the Stars have resigned players prior to July 1st which is part of the reason why they were not as active as fans would have liked, to why the schedule hasn't changed and where does it appear to be heading next year. All in all it was a fun time and it officially kicked off my next season as a die hard Dallas Stars Fan! Good Luck to the boys in '07-'08 and they have my full support as always!



Just and FYI, Season III of the DSP kicks off Monday, September 10th so be sure to subscribe to the rss feed both for the blog and the podcast! Thanks always for your support. Go Stars!!