A Time For Everything

Well, yes!

Colorado Avalanche vs. Edmonton Oilers in the West and Tampa Bay Lightning vs. New York Rangers in the East.

I placed several $5 bets on various teams early in the year.

Only one team is left playing. That would be the Avs, and they are a juggernaut right now.

But Tampa Bay is going for a three-peat, meaning they're back-to-back Stanley Cup champions and going for their third Cup win. They too are a powerhouse team. (Usually.)

As of this morning, the Avalanche and the Rangers lead their respective series ...

In hockey, however, anything can happen. So by the end of the week, we could be looking at an Oilers / Lightning Cup Final. Both Edmonton and Tampa Bay would have to win all their remaining games. Could it happen? Yes. Is it likely? No

But the Conference Finals and the Cup Final is not what I wanted to muse on today.

Let's circle back to my boys in Victory green.

It's the dawn of yet another new era in Dallas Stars Hockey.

Rick Bowness, head coach for the last couple of seasons, and the team parted ways. Bones inherited the coaching job initially when the previous coach was fired. And as a result of the run to the Stanley Cup Final a couple of years ago, he was offered a new contract.

A lot of people in the fan base are of the opinion that he's not the best coach for our team and while I'm not a strategist nor do I really understand a lot of aspects of the game, I've come to agree. Their explanations make sense.

Bones is an old school coach, but the game has evolved, is evolving, as are the players coming up. While Bones is by all accounts a great "players" coach--everyone in the League loves Bones as a person--his coaching style seems to be stuck in the 80s and 90s. And some of our really good players aren't playing as well as they could as a result. Their skills and talents aren't being utilized, they're not being put in positions to truly shine and succeed. And that's a shame.

Hopefully, the new coach will be able to balance the strengths of each and every player for a truly contending team.

Several of our older players--"veterans," as the over age-thirty players tend to get labeled--are coming off the books, meaning their contracts have expired and are not being renewed. Sadly, we're stuck with one guy who most everyone (fan-wise) hates.

On the other hand, they offered one of our very best players at age 37 a one-year extension. And thank the Good Lord for that. Joe Pavelski, along with his two younger line-mates was responsible for over 40% of our goal scoring last season. While on the one hand it's impressive--we made the play-offs on the backs of those three men--we should be getting scoring from all four lines as well as from the defensemen.

We made it to a game seven of the first round on the back of our young goalie. He was the best goalie in the league during his single round of playoffs and was just shunted into second best position two games into the third round...

Many in the fan base are hoping that the new coach will balance all the talent we have--help the veterans be as productive as possible and allow the young guns opportunity and a chance to shine, all while bringing back a little more offense from up and down the roster.

Looking forward to see what the 2022-2023 season has in store for a boys in Victory Green.

In the meantime--LET'S GO AVS!!

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.

The squirrels provide no end of amusement... Check out the critter lying in the picnic table--feet dangling over the edge. And the other one just sitting in the bowl snacking leisurely.

In other exciting news, our Dallas Stars won their game yesterday--a game they desperately needed to win. It was back and forth with the score throughout the who game. A nail-biting, barn burner for sixty minutes plus of game play!

Also, the heatwave has been slightly broken. It'll only be 93* today instead of 103*!! I'll take it.

Hope you had a great weekend...

Once upon a time, DD would only watch Dallas Stars hockey. Didn't care about news of any team other that of our home team. She was a more a Stars fan and less a general hockey fan. It was challenge to have a hockey conversation with her sometimes. But five months after the world went on hiatus and my girl is watching all kinds of hockey.

Of course, other games have ramifications for our team, provided they move forward.

It's really nice to have hockey back, but we've both become realists about the chances our Stars have to get past the first round. Could it happen? Sure it could. Anything can happen during the NHL playoffs. Will it happen? Sadly, the play of our team and decision of the coaches on whom to put in the lineup greatly reduces our chances.

We've both made other picks as to who the winner of the Stanley Cup will be. Neither of us has picked our Stars to go all the way. We're each rooting for one of the other's most hates teams. I'm rooting for Colorado Avalanche and she's rooting for Philadelphia Flyers. Since they're in different conferences, they could end playing each other for the Cup. Wouldn't that be a hoot?

Anyway, it's been an exciting week of hockey with more to come this weekend.

Hope your weekend is whatever you're looking for it to be! Have a great one.