A Time For Everything

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.

Our boys in Victory Green won last night in spectacular fashion, going from 3 goals down to 4 goals ahead for a 7-3 victory over the Calgary Flames, which allowed them to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In the process, they set a couple of records, not just for the franchise, but within the NHL as a whole.

Their second round match-up is the Colorado Avalanche, a team who is on a tear, but whom we beat every time we faced them in the regular season. Now the regular season was a million years ago and the Avs have their star players playing like stars (unlike our star players), so I don't know how much those wins mean now.

On the other hand, we don't have to face the St. Louis Blues for whom we have some sort of mental block--they knocked us out last in year in double overtime of Game 7 in round two. Depending on what happens in their game tonight--we may not have to face them at all... Of course, if we don't get past the Avs, it won't matter.

Sooooo, say it with me:

Have a great weekend!!

Perhaps surprising many of their fans, the Dallas Stars have played pretty decent hockey in their past two games, earning two wins in a row and taking a 3-2 lead in the best of seven game series. Should they win their next game, they will move on to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In celebration, I'm sharing pictures of some crafts DD and I made a couple of months ago.

The numbers on the paw pads represent my favorite players: 14--Jamie Benn, the captain; 45--Roman Polak, who's since gone back to the Czech Republic for good (sniffle); 23--Esa Lindell, a member of the Finnish Mafia and one of our top 4 defensemen; and 35--Anton Khudobin, the "backup" goalie.

So when I say the Finnish Mafia, it's just a nickname for the group of Finns on the team; there are three of them and they are all bright young studs. As for our backup goalie, he's absolutely good enough to be a starter, but we have him as a quote/unquote backup. And thank goodness. Our #1 goalie has been out with an injury and no one--team or fans--has to worry any longer about the goaltending situation like we used to. So "backup" is something of a misnomer, hence the quote marks.

This guy--isn't he cute?--started life as an unfinished kit we got on clearance at a local craft store right after Christmas last year. I've been on the hunt for more of them, but they all come with swords or guns and those don't work for our purposes... Hoping there will be more this Christmas season as I think DD and I could paint a few of them and sell them to people on the Facebook Group we're a part of.

As for me, I've been beating the heat with homemade Keto ice cream. I know this doesn't look that appealing... lol ...but it tastes pretty darn good.

This is chocolate caramel peanut ice cream with chopped caramel chips and chopped peanuts. It's a little too rich between the cocoa powder and the chopped caramel chips, so maybe a bit less cocoa powder next time around.

I've also made various other flavors, all to my satisfaction, including chocolate chocolate chip, chocolate caramel pecan, chocolate caramel peanut, coconut chocolate chip, and chocolate caramel coconut. Tonight, I'm looking forward to coconut pecan. No chocolate.

I have some anise extract, but I've yet to decide what to pair/mix it with...feel free to offer suggestions.

The base ice cream recipe, along with flavor additions, can be found here if you're so inclined to try it.

Have a great rest of your week.