Otter Alert

Head’s up Otter fans, the Dallas Stars Training camp blog for yesterday was written by none other than our favorite petulant little ice troll, Steve Ott.  So be sure to check it out.  Also, he got two goals in scrimmage yesterday and his line of Crombeen/Eriksson/Ott scored all five goals with Crombeen getting a hat trick.  Wish I could have been there!

Waiting For The Weekend!

I’ve been rushing home every day to check our mail for our season tickets and today we hit jackpot!  OUR TICKETS HAVE ARRIVED!!!  Wahooo!!!!  And as a  nice bonus, our tickets to Saturday’s preseason game arrived as well.  I’m so excited I can’t hardly stand it!  Saturday night, the AAC, STARS HOCKEY!!!

The Stars are holding an Open House on Saturday at the AAC.  I won’t be in attendance, I can’t make every Stars event, you know.  Have fun everyone who can go!  I will be indulging some of my other passions for the day.  The Kid and I are meeting my best friend from my hometown (we sat next to each other during Mrs. Dahl’s First Grade).  She is the only person I know who laughs even louder than me.  We are heading to the Kimbell to see the French Impressionists exhibit, then to a local Tea Room for lunch and lastly to a place called Dishes from the Past.  I think I probably love dishes even more than hockey.  I have five sets including a set of Christmas dishes, plus I have Christmas accent pieces to go with my china and my Fiesta.  I love Christmas.  But I am sure you will hear all about that when we get closer to the holidays.    Oh, and that five sets doesn’t include my mom’s china which I still have packed away.  Anyway, I can’t wait to see what goodies await me at Dishes from the Past.  After saying goodbye to my friend, the Kid and I will head back to go to the Stars game.  To say I am looking forward to Saturday is a major understatement.  Art exhibit, ladies’ lunch, dishes and hockey, that pretty well covers all my major passions!  As my friends over on IPB say, I am positively pommerdoodling!

Just A Mention

If you have not seen it, the Stars sight has a Training Camp Blog going.  The first day was Marty Turco and the second was James Neal.  Some good stuff. 

And on the other end of the spectrum, Sportsquee has her latest edition of “Fly on the Wall” up.  Always a must read for me.  I don’t know how she does it.

Also, I’ve seen this in a couple of different places:

Avery said. “Me and Richie are in the same building together, so if I find a spot we need to go to I tell him and vice versa. It’s working out good.” 

Whoa, talk about your “odd couple”.  I would have never seen those two hanging out together.

9/23/08 UPDATE:  If you haven’t checked out the Training Camp Blogs on the Stars’ website, you must at least check out Loui’s and Nick Grossman’s.  Both have very high “earnest factors” and are well written considering English is their second language.  I know, I know, they probably had some help, don’t burst my bubble!

And So It Begins!

Yes, people, hockey has begun!  WAHOO!!!  Hub and I spent the day at the Stars Training Camp and I must say, I had a fabulous time!  I’ve been to a lot of the Stars’ practices but never a training camp.  And let me tell you, it was an entirely different beast!  The pace and excitement are running so much higher.  All those kids trying so hard. 

We arrived about 15 minutes into the first practice session, appropriately decked out in our Robi and Ott jerseys, clipboard in hand.  You can get the details on the action at the scrimmage from Heika or Andrew’s blog so I’ll not repeat it.  The highlight for me was a fabulous glove save made by Climie on a breakaway by Chris Conner.  And having Nisky rob Mo of a last minute tying goal.  The look on Mo’s face was priceless.  Instead, I thought I would give a little rundown on the various players.  I tend to judge people on what their work ethic is like when it doesn’t count, so just keep that in mind. 

Starting with the veterans, Robidas was his usual standout self.  He never lets up, was there fightin’ for it in the corners like always and speed, man that guy can skate.  Just as much energy and drive as any of the prospects trying to make the team.  And his nose looks so much better.  It just struck me that he was our senior defenseman out there today and he is only 31.  Wow. 

Next up, our veteran forwards.  Brad Richards is a lot like Robi, he never let up either.  He really looked at home out there and was always right in the middle of things.  He got quite a bit of playing time.  I like the idea of him centering a line with Mo and Avery.  Didn’t get to see that combo today, as they were trying to give as much ice time to the new kids as possible to see what they could do.  I think we are going to love watching this guy play.  He has great flow to his game.  I’m not sure how else to describe it.  No big plays to speak of, just a lot of enthusiasm. 

Guess What?!?

Guess what I just saw on the Sports?  DALLAS STARS HOCKEY!!!  Granted it was for only about 30 seconds.  But it really was actual training camp coverage.  I saw Tippett and everything.  Ok, yes, I am really bored.  But I am positively Ottertrolling over the idea of going to training camp tomorrow.  I have my roster printed out and my list of who is on which team all ready for my clipboard.  And yes, I am that dorky.

Does This Sound Familiar?

Sergei Zubov had surgery today and Boucher is day-to-day.  Does this sound vaguely familiar?  Sorry Caitlin and Patty.  It’s just another sign that hockey is here, agonizing over our favorite players getting hurt.  It happens to most of them at one time or another; Otter’s ankles, Morrow’s wrist, everyone and their dog’s sports hernia.  But it sure seems like our beloved Russian and the lovely Mr. Boucher have had more than their share.  I know they both are probably feeling very frustrated right now.  I wish them both a speedy recovery.  (Not like they actually read my blog, just putting my well wishes out there. )  I was so looking forward to seeing Russian teamed up with little Nisky again.  Oh well.

I can’t wait for Saturday and training camp to begin.  I’m especially excited about seeing all the new guys, well all but one, anyway.

Hockey! Hockey! Hockey!

Yes, dear friends, hockey is finally upon us.  Several things have happened lately that harkens the start of hockey season.  First, we signed up for our first fantasy hockey league over on IPB.  We’ll be “The Ice Trolls,” of course, in honor of my petulant little ice troll, Steve Ott.  It’s a no pressure, strictly for fun (as in silly fun and trash talking) league.  I still need to rank my players, which can only be from the EC, so I’m pulling up all the old Stars players but beyond that I’m pretty clueless. 

The next sign is getting our season tickets.  Yes, we are going ahead with getting a partial season 12 game set.  We have picked our games and Thomas, my new BFF and own personal Stars ticket guy, has pulled our seats.  Hub and Kid have approved the locations and now I just have to pay for them.  Ouch.  Very exciting though! 

Today, we experienced our first Stars Ice Breaker.  Wow.  Huge crowd.  I’m not sure what I expected but it was definitely bigger than expected.  The Kid and I got in line for Otter first.  Well duh.  The Kid’s mission is to get all of the team’s autographs on her pink lady’s jersey.  I just wanted Ott’s on my Ott jersey.  Joel Lundqvist was at the same station with Ott so the Kid got his autograph as well as Otter’s.  She handled it well.  I on the other hand was completely “Star” struck.  I had all these great ideas of what I might talk to Mr. Ott about but when the time came, I couldn’t think of a thing to say to Steve and didn’t even hear him when he commented on how much he liked my jersey choice.  I have no trouble talking to strangers but can be very easily star struck, apparently.  I did ask Joel how his baby was doing, to which he replied, “fine”.  I’m sure he had only heard it a thousand times already.  It was a little odd because he has let his hair grow out and it felt like I was looking at Henrik, not Joel.  The Kid and I had our picture taken with Joel and Ott with me still being speechless.  Oh well, maybe next time.  After that we met up with fellow blogger folks, Caitlin, Jen and Cat, who were in line for Russian and Mark Fistric.  They graciously let Kid get in line with them, otherwise, we might never have gotten Mr. Zubov’s signature as his line was very long and he doesn’t usually sign after practices.  Kid says a big thanks to The Untypical Girls.  His signature is Kid’s favorite.  As she says “It is so cool.”  I think Joel Lundqvist’s is pretty, all swirly.  Hub had been waiting in line for Brad Richards and Chris Conner.  We swooped around and got Kid in to get their signatures at the last minute.  Chris is adorable, but Kid said Brad was the only one who really gave her a hug when she got her picture taken with him.  With the way he likes kids, that doesn’t surprise me.  Such a good guy.  But I must warn his lady fans.  He has shaved his head again.  Not my favorite look on him.  Hope he lets it grow out soon.  All total, we only got six signatures, considering how long the lines were, not too bad. 

Should I or Shouldn’t I?

I am faced with a dilemma.  For weeks now I have been trying to decide if I should buy the 12 game season ticket plan or not.  And if I get tickets should I get 3 (for Hub, Kid and me) or 4 which would mean Kid could bring a friend or we could invite another couple if the Kid’s busy social calendar conflicts with a game.  I can’t decide.  My folks left me a little money, most of which will go into Kid’s college fund, but I wanted to use some to do something totally frivolous and fun.  I think this fits the bill.  But then when I look at the actual dollar amount, I freak.  I have been a stay-at-home mom for the most part of 11 years now and have had to be pretty careful with our finances.  (Plus, my husband is extremely frugal so I didn’t have much choice!)  But now that I am actually earning a paycheck again, I’m feeling the urge to loosen up just a little.  I had just about talked myself out of it when there wasn’t much going on in the land of hockey.  Now we are getting more updates about the players being back in town and how excited they all are about the new season.  There have been interviews and everything.  Now I’m all “HOCKEY, EHHHHH!”  Then in the mail on Saturday we get a flier from the Stars reminding us that these certain games will probably sell out.  Some are definitely ones I would love to see in person.  Arrggghhh….The Stars marketing department is doing too good of a job.  Individual tickets go on sale Sept 20th, I believe, so I really want to decide before then. 

What do y’all think?  Hub is no help because his answer, if it involves spending money, is always no.  So what do you say?  Yes, buy the tickets, live a little.  Or No, you can enjoy the games just as much watching them at home.