This weekend, including today, is the NHL All-Star Game and Skills competition! Everything will be shown on NBC and the Skills competition is tomorrow at 4pm and the Game is Sunday at 7pm! Pretty much all day Sunday is going to be recapping the weekend and looking at stats and all that good stuff!
Last night the two team captains, Alfredsson (Senators) and Chara (Bruins), picked there teammates for the skills portion and the game on Sunday. Sadly, and for no apparent reason, Jamie Benn was picked second to last…WTF?!?! Well at least it wasn’t last, but he is now playing on Zdeno (I still can’t pronounce his name right) Chara’s team. Jamie was picked for a couple of the skills portions for tomorrow and will hopefully play a lot as a forward on Sunday!
On a side note…I’m extremely happy that Tim Thomas was also chosen by Chara as the goaltender, I love watching that man in action!
Here is a link to see the rest of the roster for the All-Star weekend!
Gotta say I’m not a huge fan of Benn’s increasingly growing hair…but he is still Jamie Benn!!! And that is enough said!
Everyone have fun watching the games this weekend!!
So this is a couple of days late buuuut Jamie Benn is now a NHL All-Star!! He was the only Dallas Star to make the team this year, but what better athlete to represent the Stars than Jamie Benn! Now in my opinion Benn should have played on the All-Star team when he was a Rookie, because he was almost in Calder Cup position and was doing awesome his first year, but unfortunately I don’t pick out the All-Star team.
Other notable players that made the team this year are (of course) Tim Thomas, Alex Ovechkin, Jonathan Toews, and Henrik Lundqvist (Most notable for being on my Top Ten Hottest list, haha). The team in all has 48 players, 36 vets and 12 rookies. This year the game is taking place in Ottawa on January 29th. I’m sure that weekend the game and the skills competition will be on NBC, like it was last year.
Now the question until then is, who is going to be picked to lead each team. My guess is that Ovechkin will be one of them and then I think Toews or Thomas stand a good chance of it also. But we shall see! What do you guys think??
Last week Sports Illustrated polled 179 NHL players to discover who they thought were the most underrated players in the NHL. Well the second most underrated player, according to them, is Jamie Benn!!! (Just to be clear, if I was in charge of the poll, Benn would have been #1)
This is just so awesome to see!! Ever since Benn’s first season with the Stars, and the NHL, I have considered him to be a phenomenal player who brought so much to the team and the sport! It’s great to see that not only do his fans think that, but so do his fellow athletes. According to one article, Benn stated that he was okay with being considered underrated…which to be honest I guess I am too. If Benn is considered underrated then hopefully that means that he will stay with the Stars, his contract is up this season and I hope he continues to play for the Stars! As long as Benn, the Stars, and his fans know that Benn is one of the best young NHL players than all is good in the world!
It should also be noted that the amazing Loui Eriksson was voted #1 in the poll. Eriksson has been such a solid player for the Stars for the past few years and I’m also glad that his fellow athletes realize what a force he is out on the ice! The fact that these two Stars are #1 and #2 means to me that the Stars have all the right makings of a playoff team, (great players, great coaching, and a great GM) they just need to come together and act like it! Which they are…as of right now the Stars have 47 points and are ranked 8th in the Western conference. So it’s looking good they just need to keep it up!
By the way, tomorrow the Stars play the Ducks on Fox Sports, so check it out!
For my blog, 2011 was an INCREDIBLE year!! Here is a look back on the year and my blog (And to copy off facebook, I’ll do it via timeline)
January – Started nursing school and simultaneously tried to keep an updated blog.
January – My blog was listed on the Yahoo! Sports site for the Dallas Stars.
March – I received an email from a book publisher who asked me to review a new book on hockey in Texas “The Lone Star Skate”. They sent me a free copy of the book and I did my first book review…ever!!
May – I finished my first semester of nursing school…but sadly enough the Stars were finished for the season
June – Not much going on in the hockey world, but the Stars did get a new coach, who seems to be doing extremely well!
August – I was contacted by another hockey blog “Puck Buddy’s” and was asked to join them in their efforts to bring hockey and the gay community closer together!
August – I met an AMAZING special someone. I know it’s not hockey related but it’s my blog, so it’s going on the timeline
September – The hockey world started to come back to life and of course my life got much busier.
October – I wrote my first post for “Puck Buddy’s” and received positive reviews and even more viewers!
October – I wrote a post about taking my boyfriend to a hockey game, and with an enormous help from the men who work on “Puck Buddy’s”, it went above and beyond my wildest expectations!
October – My article was posted and talked about on Outsports.com and The Voice (a Dallas gay newspaper).
November – I did something I never thought possible, I created a twitter account for my blog. It is a great way to connect with other gay hockey fans and to share my blog! Follow me @gaystarsfan
December – My blog hit 30,000 views…which means that in the year 2011 I had more than 20,000 views. Incredible!
So what’s in store for the new year??? Well I’ve decided to make my New Year’s resolution about this blog. I want to spend more time with it, I want to go back and do game reviews, player reviews, and spend more time with the great guys at Puck Buddy’s…I want to be a better blogger. Of course the new year will also mean the third update of my “Top Ten” list, so this is as good of time as any to ask people for who they think should be on this years list. I actually did take the advice of some viewers last year, so you never know who will end up on the list…well except for Jamie Benn, how could he not be on there
2011 was a fantastic year for my blog, and all in all it was pretty great in my life! Or course you all can probably guess as the what the best part of 2011 was…and if you can’t refer to the timeline ‘August’ note above!
Thanks to all of my readers who continue to amaze me with the fact that people actually care and like what I write about. I wouldn’t continue to do this if it wasn’t for you guys! Thanks to Puck Buddy’s for expanding my horizons with this blog…I never imagined any of these things would happen, and thanks to you guys for being a part of it! Lastly, thanks to my family and friends, you guys support me and keep me going, which keeps this blog going!
Happy New Year everyone! Hard to believe it is already 2012 but I’m very excited for what is to come. Hope everyone had a great NYE, I had an amazing time (Plus my first ever NYE kiss, with my amazing boyfriend!) but now on to some hockey…
The Stars decided to come into the New Year the right way, by a 4-2 win over the Boston Bruins! Here are some reasons as to why 2012 could (and hopefully) will be the year for the Stars.
New Owner – With the help from new owner, Tom Gaglardi, the Stars seem to be slowly but surely gaining some more popularity. Now some of this may be due to the fact that the Cowboys are having (yet again) another losing season, until recently the future of the Mavs was unclear, and the Rangers came so close and yet so far two seasons in a row, but I like to think that Gaglardi’s decision to decrease ticket prices and increase special promotions has increased the accessibility of hockey to ‘non-fans’. And Gaglardi’s best decision was bringing back Jim Lites, the original president and CEO of the Dallas Stars. With this new restructuring of the Dallas Stars Executives the team, as a business, will hopefully gain some speed. This would then allow the team, on the athletic side, to finer tune some things with the game, and hopefully make the PLAYOFF’S!
New Players – About half the team this season is new (or they keep getting moved up and/or down from the minors) but more or less half the team is new. Which, compared to previous seasons, has proven to be a great thing! Take Eric Nystrom, he has been incredible this season and he shows no signs of slowing down. Then there is Ryder who helped the Stars reign in the New Year with a win over the Bruins last night. Lastly, there is “The Fiddle”, he has been a pleasant surprise and a great asset to the team. And with the news today that Jordie Benn (brother of the amazing Jamie Benn) we may very well have another newbie on the team who can help them make it to the PLAYOFF’S!
New Style – No doubt the biggest asset this team has going for them is the new direction of coach Gulutzan! He has spent his time and energy into molding the Stars into a stronger, more reliable team. Sure they still have their struggles, like any good team, but without looking at wins and looses the Stars have pretty good stats, and they seem to only be getting better. Gulutzan has the Stars heading in the right direction and maybe, just maybe, this season the Stars will make it back to the PLAYOFF’S!
All of these things can, and hopefully will, contribute to the Stars not only making the playoff’s but making it far! With great players new and old (Looking at you Benn!), new management, and new coaching that finally has the Stars looking like a consistent team, the Stars stand a great chance of making those Playoff’s!!
The AAC looks much more packed than it did earlier in the season!
P.S. How thankful is everyone that Lehtonen is off of injured reserve and back in the net!!!
So this past Monday night I went to the Stars game with…wait for it…my Boyfriend, Jon! Now if you guys have seen my previous post about my first ever hockey date, then you know this wasn’t anything new. Now what was new was that we went to the game with my sister (Diana), her husband (Mike), my nephew (Kyler), my Dad, and my Grandfather!! Now before everyone starts asking “Why in the hell did that collection of people attended a hockey game with me and my boyfriend”, let me share the back story.
So I’ll give you the short version (although for me that ends up being the same story and there is real no shorter version…oh well). About a month ago my sis called me up and told me that my nephew and his high-school band would be playing after the first period at one of the Stars games…yea I thought that was a little weird too…a high-school band at a hockey game? Anyway so I bought two tickets, one for me and one for Jon. Now some of you maybe thinking why in the hell did I bring Jon with me when he hasn’t even met my parents?! Well luckily, I had already made plans for them to meet Jon a few weeks back. So about a week and a half ago I took Jon home to meet my family, thankfully they all loved him (which why wouldn’t they!!) and it was all clear for us to all go to the game together!
Now back to the present. Jon and I get to the game, a little late, because Dallas decided to have a major storm, but we got there none the less. The game was a complete success…now the 5 previous games had resulted in shame for the Stars but luckily Jon brings good luck because the Stars kicked ass that night!
Highlights of the night:
Well for starters Jon created his own player nickname, which now I’m of course going to try my hardest to make it catch on. There is a new player on the team, and who knows how long he will last, but his name is Vernon Fiddler…which led Jon to call him “The Fiddle”. So spread the word because if fiddler becomes a permanent member of the Stars he now has a new kick-ass nickname!
Next was seeing my nephew get to walk out on to the ice, playing on his saxophone. It was pretty cool, especially since he is part of the same high-school band that I was in high-school! It was pretty cool, after they were done playing he came up to sit by his favorite uncle (Which would of course be me!)
Lastly (and the best part of the entire night) was being able to sit next to Jon! During the game it was pretty crowded around us, but we were still able to be affectionate throughout the game, which was so extremely nice! We also managed to steal a few kisses after the game was over on our way back to the car. And we also managed to snap a few pics before we left
So all in all it was an Amazing night!! And I can’t wait for more hockey dates in the future!!
Hey Guys! Just wanted to let you know about a new documentary that has been playing on the LOGO channel (aka The gay channel). “The Legacy of Brendan Burke”. It is a special documentary that recounts the life of Brendan Burke and the legacy that he leaves behind. It was an amazing documentary and I’m not ashamed to say that I teared up multiple times. It goes into detail about Brendan’s love for hockey, his coming out, his ambitions in hockey, and unfortunately his tragic untimely death.
For those of you that have seen my articles about Brendan Burke you know how amazing I think he was, and how I believe he single handedly did more for gays and hockey than anyone else has. Luckily, Brendan leaves behind some amazing family members who work to keep Brendan’s dreams alive. His brother Patrick still works today to spread the word about gays and sports. It is so incredible to see and I’m so excited to see the strives that he is making! Then of course there is his dad, Brian Burke, the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He attended a gay pride parade in Toronto without his son because he made a promise…and kept it. He also works closely with PFLAG to bring attention to the issue of gays and sports. So amazing and sweet!! What an amazing Dad and icon, that hopefully the hockey world emulates.
It still saddens me that we are coming up on the 2 year anniversary of Brendan’s horribly tragic death. I can’t seem to help but wonder were hockey would be if Brendan was still out there combining the two worlds of hockey and the gay society. He was inspirational about his coming out and I think there are people everywhere that look to him for courage to come out. I just hope one day in the, not so distant, future that a professional athlete can look at Brendan’s story and see that the ice is shinier on the other side (Yes I’m aware how corny that was!).
Here is the link to the LOGO site where they are playing the documentary online. I really hope you guys check it out…this is extremely important to not only gays and hockey but gays and sports in general!
Also, here is another link to an article that was posted on my collaboration site, Puck Buddy’s (Article By Andrew), it is about an interview with Patrick Burke. You should check it out!
The Burke family that still makes strives in the efforts to have Brendan’s dream come true! (His mother is not photographed)
Eric Nystrom…I have to say who the hell would have predicted that he would be this amazing?!?!
In his 11 games, this season with the Stars, Nystrom has already surpassed the amount of goals he shot last season with the Minnesota Wild…that is pretty unbelievable! So what’s the deal? Why is there a 180 degree difference in this seasons Nystrom versus last seasons Nystrom? Well if you want my opinion, and since this is my blog, that is what you are going to get, I think it is a combination of three things:
He’s under the direction of Coach Gulutzan…we have all seen the effects of the Stars new coaching and I think that is part of the reason why Nystrom has been able to get out there and show his stuff.
He has been on the same line with Jamie Benn and Loui Erikkson. Yes, we all know that I think Benn is a God on ice, but I truly believe that Nystrom is playing better because he is on a line with players that can help him with the puck, and with Benn playing center it seems to be working great!
And lastly, Hard work…Nystrom said so himself, he worked his ass off this summer. He didn’t really show his stuff in Minnesota so he worked hard and came to Dallas a MUCH better player!
Overall, the way Nystrom is playing he stands a great chance of being a key component to the Stars. Hopefully he keeps it up!
Here is one of the amazing shots Nystrom has shot for the Stars!
So far this season we have won 11 amazing games and have lost 4. This is a great start for the Stars and I’m just praying that they can keep this pace up! Because the Stars is the best thing Dallas has going for them (Of course I’ve always thought that, but now other people are starting to!) Due to the fact that the Cowboys are depressing each time they step out onto the field, the Rangers have been to the world series twice and came back empty-handed, and now the Mavericks may not even play…so that leaves Dallas with my Amazing boys!!!
I’m actually extremely glad I didn’t get the chance to watch last nights game because seeing James Neal lead his new team to victory against us, would have just been horribly depressing. Plus, as many of you know I can’t stand any professional sports team that comes out of Pennsylvania. But last night James Neal showed his stuff and out played the Dallas Stars. Tonight they play against he Red Wings and hopefully can kick some ass!! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to watch the game because I will be taking Jon home with me to meet my parents! So I’ll probably be a little preoccupied, but you can bet that I’ll be refreshing my new Dallas Stars App that came out on Halloween!!
Now to recap one of the best games of the season so far… Stars vs. Avalanche! What an amazing fight between both teams, and my man Benn was able to get 3 assist and 1 goal!! The game was really exciting and it was awesome to see Eriksson shoot that winning goal during OT, and especially when it hit Erik Johnson, kind of funny! It was also nice to see Goligoski score a goal, he is a great part of the team….even though he came from the Penguins, lol! It was a great game with so many goals I couldn’t keep track!
So my post that I wrote for PuckBuddy’s about going out on a date to a Stars game, has been deemed worthy to be placed on the famous gay sports website OutSports This is so freaking exciting for me, I’ve been following OutSports even before I started doing this blog and I love reading their stuff. To have something of mine be put on their website is just so unbelievable. If you would like to take a look here it is:
Hey guys! Here is a link to a post that I wrote for “Puck Buddy’s“. So the post is about my first experience going out on a date to a hockey game and everything that I felt when going…it was an AMAZING night and I can’t wait to experience it again!
P.S. Quick shout out to the amazing people I collaborate with on the Puck Buddy’s blog! You guys are all amazing writers and it’s an honor to work with you guys!
So this Friday the Stars will be playing the Ducks in Anaheim. This will mark the second game out of 4 away games for the stars, which is a long stretch and something no one looks forward too!
Before I get to Fridays game I MUST recap last nights game against Columbus. They won 3-2 but the highlight of that game (and probably for the whole away game stretch) was Jamie Benn’s single-handed shot. If you didn’t see it here it is:
How AMAZING is this man!! He bypasses not 1, not 2, but 4 freaking blue jackets and manages to shoot an amazing goal past the goalie! It was incredible! If this doesn’t solidify that Benn is on his way to being one of the best and greatest in the NHL then I don’t know what will!
So on to Friday’s game. I’m hoping for a win (Obviously!), but it will be a tough game. The ducks have been playing really well this season and they are second in the pacific…luckily the Stars first! The Stars seem to be playing really well, given the fact that 33% of the team is pretty much brand new! I think the Stars stand a good chance at winning this game…it’s the next game that has me worried. Right after Friday’s game comes Saturday’s game against the Kings, and that sucks! Hopefully they can pull it off but the Stars have a bad history against the Kings and it’s weird but it seems like they choke when they play them.
Hopefully the Stars don’t choke with either of their games coming up this weekend!
So last night I went to the Stars game with, okay I’ll just say it, my boyfriend!! He surprised me a few weeks ago with two tickets to last nights game! It was amazing!! He got us great seats and it was his first time going to a hockey game. The game itself wasn’t the most amazing game, the lines were a bit off in my opinion and I felt that the Blue Jackets didn’t really put up that great of a fight…of course I say that after seeing us win, lol! But the game was amazing because of who I was with!
The final score was 4-2 with the Stars winning! The first period each team scored and then during the second period each team scored again. Thankfully in the third period the Stars came back and scored twice more to win the game.
During the game it was amazing to see my boyfriend, and yes I will probably continue to be this annoying by calling him “My Boyfriend”, get all excited and into the game, especially during power plays. He thought they were pretty awesome and extremely stressful, but fun. He even got to see his first hockey fight and took a picture of it! It was an AMAZING night and I can’t wait to go to more games with him!
I’m so happy that I’m actually with someone who not only can seem to tolerate my love for hockey but is even willing to partake in it! Such an amazing feeling!
Now that preseason is over we can look forward to the start of the official NHL season.
The Stars spent the past 2 weeks participating in 6 preseason games and did an excellent job! They won 6 out of the 7 preseason games, and really seem to be in good shape! I was able to watch a little bit of them playing online yesterday and they seem to be playing quite well! Hopefully this is indicative of the future, and maybe we can get into playoff contention this season!
The Stars play the Season Opener this Friday 10/07 at 7:30 and it will be a home game! They are playing the Chicago Blackhawks and it should make for a very good season opener!
Now for some other news…we lost Brad Richards! So I’m not too horribly upset by this mainly because I saw it coming from a mile away. Last season I was under the impression that Richards wasn’t all that happy with the Stars and I got the idea that he probably felt he could be playing on a better team…well his lost! Don’t get me wrong I LOVE Richards and his talent will definitely be missed amongst the Stars. He still is probably one of the most respectable players out there in the NHL and I look forward to seeing him as he plays for the New York Rangers. Also, we lost Jamie Langenbrunner…I’ve gotta say I’m not torn up about that at all! I felt that he was kind of useless the last half of the season and for me personally he won’t be missed. He was transferred to the St. Louis Blues.
Now the good news is that we kept Morrow, Ribeiro, Goligoski, Lehtonen, Ott, Erikkson, Daley, Robidas, and of course Benn!! There are also some new addictions to the team but we shall see if they actually stick with the team for more than two weeks. One player who is new this season that stands a good chance of staying is former Bruins player Michael Ryder. Don’t no much about him but look forward to seeing him out on the ice. On a side note: It is a little weird that two seasons ago the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup and then that next season we got Adam Burish. Then this past season the Bruins won the cup and then we get one of their former players this season…just some food for thought, lol!
Also, last bit of news the new coach, Glen Gulutzan, seems to know his stuff and I’m interested to see what he has in store for the Stars this season!
Coach Gulutzan announcing his addiction as Coach for the Dallas Stars
So recently I was asked to begin collaborating with another blog where gay hockey fans write about different NHL teams. The blog is called Puck Buddys. It is a fantastic site and I cannot wait to see what the new season has in store. I will still be writing for this blog but I will also be writing things for Puck Buddys and sharing my content with them as well.
Also, I created a twitter account (Never thought I would say that, lol). So if you would like to follow me just go to the widget on the right and click “Follow Me”! I’m really excited about this season and I just want to say thank you to all of those who have read my blog!!
~Bobby
P.S. First game starts tomorrow!!
Update 10/07/11: Here is the link to the article I wrote for Puck Buddys -
Gotta say I’m not a huge fan of Benn’s increasingly growing hair…but he is still Jamie Benn!!! And that is enough said!
