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DeniedTotally agree.
Took in the Stars-'Yotes last night and it was as electric of a sporting event as I've been to outside of the Rangers' and Mavericks' post-seasons.
The American Airlines Center seemed pretty full (17,012 announced). Plenty of scoring and near misses. Some outstanding plays including Kari Lehtonen in goal. An extended fisticuffs involving crowded boxes. An overtime and shootout.
What really gets my blood going were the fights. Not because I'm blood thirsty or a complete ogre, but more because there's something worthwhile in knowing that if something happens, someone's got your back.
Shane Doan clocked Jamie Benn early in the second period last night. I thought Doan got him with the stick as it happened. Sure enough, it took Brenden Morrow and Steve Ott about three seconds to find Doan and any other white jersey to show that those type of shenanigans were not tolerated.
Baseball has the same sort of on-the-field justice that "protects players" as they solve things on the ice. There's a camaraderie in hockey that is mostly absent from football and basketball, two sports that I love. To translate to basketball, last night's incident would have been like Dirk Nowitzki getting clocked and Jason Kidd getting in someone's face. Would never happen. This was the Stars' captain and alternates (Morrow, Ott) taking up for one of their own.
It was beautifully barbaric.
****
As I watch hockey, I really try to watch the game. Not necessarily the puck or the puck handler, but the guys moving around. I try to catch the small things and see the cause and effect.
It moves so fast, especially in person, that it's hard to connect things and then determine what plays were bad, what were good and how we can correlate the performance on the ice for an individual.
It did not take a hockey genius to see the Stars' major goofs last night. Sitting on a 3-1 lead in the third quarter, a tragic series of plays sent the game into overtime doubt.
The first was a short-handed tally by Phoenix's Oliver Ekman-Larsson off one of the laziest, discombobulated Stars power plays that I might have ever seen. Dysfunctional is an understatement.
The tying goal was gut wrenching: Clearing the puck, defenseman Sheldon Souray had the puck picked from behind and promptly emptied into the net on the Coyote power play.
Despite all the winning, despite the two points, that's what the Stars are prone to do and it clearly isn't a sign of a good hockey club. Without Mike Ryder and Lehtonen, the Stars fail to get a point last night and allowing the Coyotes to get one point could kill the Stars in a couple of weeks.
As it is, we take the two and move on.
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