Thursday night we went to watch Jesse play at Duncanville Dr Pepper StarCentre, and got an awesome what the photo - it’s definitely a visual. Afterwards, the three of us went to Whataburger and then back to Jesse’s place to pick up the ticket for the Hawks game to give to Amber since he wasn’t going. We stayed until about 2am in the end. His Mum is just lovely - I like her a lot. She was welcoming and sweet and very entertaining and interested in us. I borrowed Jesse’s computer to update the blog a little and then we went home.
Friday morning I was still buzzing about meeting Mike. Of course. Amber, Sam and I went to Grapevine Mills shopping mall to check out the largest mall in Texas. Oh … my …. GOD it’s MASSIVE. Not only is it huge, but it has attached to it, the Grapevine Mills Dr Pepper StarCentre! We had lunch in the Rainforrest Cafe which was just beautiful - they flashed the lights and had lightning sound effects and it was like eating in the jungle. The food was great too. I really enjoyed it. Sam bought me a stuffed Elephant… which I have christened Mikey Mo - since Mike loves Elephants too. Amber and I got our nails refilled, since they’d grown heaps and looked messy. Leni rang to see if we wanted to meet for lunch, but we tried to call her back and she didn’t answer.
We dropped Amber back at the hotel then headed up to Addison to Dunn Bros Coffee to supposedly meet Leni but she never showed up. We stayed there for an hour or so and updated our stuff before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the game. We left to pick up Rhonda at 5.10pm and made it to her place by 6.05pm. We drove in to the AAC and parked under a bridge for $5, and then headed up to the AAC to meet up with Julie and Jeff from the forum.
Inside we went to see Ralph and thanked him for introducing us to Rob and setting up the one-on-one with Mike. He asked if he was okay, and I replied that he was so sweet to us and I loved him. Ralph asked if I was okay a couple of times, with a grin, to which I replied “Of course!” We thanked him again and then he signed a couple of autographs for us (We gave him a stuffed Kangaroo for his daughter at practice on Thursday), and then wished him a good call and left to watch warm ups. The boys looked really good on the ice. I got some fantastic shots of Mike, and one of Brenden for Jesse since he couldn’t be there.
Amber was surprised by the sound of the pucks hitting the glass but seemed to enjoy it. After the warm up, Amber and Rhonda headed up to the nosebleed section, while Sam and I found our way to 112. The view was pretty good, we were 10 rows back and pretty centre to the action. We were on the offensive end, which meant our boys were shooting into the net in front of us for two of the three 20 minute periods. After the national anthem was sung the old guy sitting in front of us turned around and said to us, “Now y’all keep it down now.” I felt like saying to him, “Listen! I’ve flown 11000 miles for this game and I paid damn good money for this ticket, I’ll be as loud as I like thank you! If you want to be dainty and quiet, watch it from the comfort of your own home! Hockey games are supposed to be loud and proud, mate!”
But I didn’t.
I just didn’t cheer throughout the game and felt that my experience was lacking a little. It was a shame. The first ended in 0-0 scoreline, and Jere seemed a little off. He was missing passes which wasn’t usual for Jere. By the time the second ended, we were 1-0 with Sergei Zubov scoring 2.02 into the second, assisted by Mike Modano and Jussi Jokinen. In the intermission between the second and third periods, I looked around and saw Rob at the top of our section. He waved at us to come up so I went up the stairs to see what he wanted.
He said, “No, I need Sam too!” So I turned and waved at Sam to come upstairs too. He grabbed our bags and ran up the stairs. Rob handed us a bag of goodies, which surprised and humbled us - of course we thanked him for it and he waved it off saying it was nothing. He said to follow him and so we did. When we got to the main hallway, I heard someone say, “Wendy?” I turned and nodded. “Hi, I’m Kelly!” It was my friend Kelly from the Stars forums! We hugged and exchanged gifts and then I said I had to go but I would meet up with her at the end of the game outside the Old No 7 Bar. I apologised to Rob and he said, “Oh no, it’s okay! We have all the time in the world.” Then he asked if that was a forum friend, which I said yes and then he asked my screen name and we chatted about the forums for a few moments as we walked towards the exit to the inside of the arena.
Rob led us down to the bowels of the AAC, where we met up with his colleague Mark - who of course remembered us and said “Aussie’s!” right!! I congratulated him and he joked that he had to get it right after I lectured him about it! I blushed and apologised and he said it was okay, he was only joking. Mark then disappeared down another corridore, but we stayed with Rob… who led us out onto the Stars Bench!
I asked, “Can I ride the pine?” with a grin and he said “Sure!” So I sat down on the bench! Oh man… it was cold and a little wet but wow… it was AWESOME! All the crowd staring down at you and the ice just there in front of you… Sam took a photo of me on the bench. I stood up and Rob smiled and said, “You know, that’s where Mo sits. We’re going this way, so that’s the lead seat. He sits right there.”
So I backed up and sat back down again with a grin and said, “I think I’ll just sit here again for a while!”
Rob then led us back to outside the locker rooms and we waited for the guys to come out after the break. To remain the respectful fans we have been, we refrained from photographing them as they left the locker room. We didn’t want to distract them from their “zone”. Moose was the first one out, since he was in net. It was amazing watching them walk out in front of us. Some were smaller than you though - like Stu Barnes for example - and then there’s Jason Arnott (or Tim Tam as we like to call him - though his regular nickname is Arnie) who at 6′4″ isn’t someone you’d want to meet in a dark alley when he’s in his gear! Arnie, Mo and Zubie were the last three out in that order, and Rob said they’re always the last three out in that order too. Then the coaches came out and Rob led us in.
We toured the Stars locker room at the AAC while the guys were playing the third period. There’s a huge plaque on the wall listing all the players who played at least 5 games at Reunion Arena on the wall which was really neat - we got a photo of that. And then we went into the locker room where the guys had just been. I went straight for Mike’s locker. We were allowed to sit down on them and have our photos taken, so we did that, and then Rob took one of both of us on Mike’s locker. Sam got shots of the room from all angles. Then we went past their shower rooms - which are really, REALLY nice - they get their own stalls, and their own mini wardrobe where their clothes hang up and their toiletries were all spread over the vanities - it was amazing. No, I didn’t go in. I was in awe just walking past. We saw the hydro pools, and the trainers rooms, the med room, the players lounge and shown where the weight room was. It was pretty impressive.
After that Rob led us back upstairs and said that he would catch up with us on Tuesday at practice and give us a tour of the Frisco locker room which is apparently more luxurious. We walked past the Hawks locker room and Rob confirmed that yes, they aren’t as nice as the Stars’ locker room. In the elevator going back upstairs, they had a monitor installed so you could watch the game! In the 6 mins of the third that we were touring the locker room, the Hawks had scored.
We got back to our seats and about 30 seconds later, Philippe Boucher scored (at 6.40 in the third), assisted by Brenden Morrow and Antti Miettinen, to put us back in the lead, 2-1! It stayed that way, until 19.59 - 4 one hundreths of a second before the full time buzzer.. the ‘Hawks scored! We couldn’t believe it! We were going to Overtime againt the Blackhawks! Overtime came and went, and it was still 2-2 at the end of the 4-on-4 OT. I turned while we were waiting for the Shootout to start and saw Ian Suber, the guy who sold us our tickets. We’d met him on Tuesday. He saw me wave and then made his way down to us. He sat/stood through the shootout with us. I screamed for every save that Moose made, and for every shooter we had. Zubie was up first and he scored. Jokinen was stoned (means Khabbibulin, the Hawks’ goalie, made the save), Modano was stoned, Miettinen, Lehtinen, Kapanen, and Arnott were all stoned too… and then out came Brenden Morrow - who normally couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn on a breakaway - and he scored! Stars won 3-2 in the shootout and I was without a voice!
It was the best game - though we were taken to a shootout by the Blackhawks of all teams, but at least it was when we were sitting at the offensive goal end. It was amazing. Afterwards we met up with Kelly and her husband Matt, Clay and Harold, Michelle, Jen, Karen, Dave, Julie, Jeff, and Rhonda and Amber of course. Clay and Harold left early, but the rest of us went to The West End area of downtown to party on. We stayed at Fridays until 2am. It was a great night and we all had a blast. Amber was our designated driver and got us home safely.
Apparently someone stole the $5 parking money out of the parking box, because we got fined for not paying the parking price. And some buggar dinged our rental car and didn’t leave any information at all! That was really annoying - luckily we’re covered by insurance. Still… we had a blast. We took Rhonda home and then Sam, Amber and I went back to our hotel. It was a fantastic night!
