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My first Dallas Stars playoff road trip is in the books! There were plenty of stories. Let’s talk about it.
Nightmare fuel
I was booked on a 6am flight to Denver with Frontier Airlines. I was not expecting much with a budget airline, but after flying Spirit to get home for two road games and propose to my girlfriend in January, I figured nothing could be worse.
Well…
I woke up at 4am, got ready to go, and jumped in a Lyft to DFW Airport. I arrived at 430am and breezed through security thanks to my new TSA Pre Check upgrade… yeah, I’m a big deal now.
Unfortunately, that would be the end of the nice experience.
The lightning began to flash as we boarded the plane… but the pilot told us we could likely get out before it moved over us. We started to move back to take off, then got word that the storm had moved above us and slid right back into the gate. Again, the pilot reassured us, saying it would be quick and we would take off in no time. Turns out no time was 90 minutes. But no big deal, I had plenty of leeway before Colorado began its morning skate at 1030 MT.
By the way, we announced a VERY cool partnership at the same time…
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After the storm passed, we moved back onto the runway… where we sat for about 30 minutes. Then we went right back to the gate due to a medical emergency on board. Alright, not the end of the world — rather have this happen on the ground where the affected passenger can get quick help and we don’t have to land in a random city.
After figuring all that out, we went back out to the runway. This time, I drifted off to sleep. When I woke up, we were on the ground. Wow! That was such a quick flight, and I can’t believe I slept the whole way — I don’t often sleep on planes. Turns out, we were still in Dallas due to a mechanical issue. This third delay also resulted in many passengers getting off the plane because they were no longer going to make their connecting flights in Denver.
We did that exact thing one more time, with more passengers getting off and less than half the plane filled. They actually moved 60-70 passengers from the back to the front for “weight distribution” on the apparent toy airplane I was riding on. It was chaos and hilarious, other than the fact that we were still delayed.
This time around, I was deep into some Mario Tennis and learning the special shots of Mario Golf on my Nintendo Switch. Both excellent games, especially when in this sort of scenario. Plus, there was a cool view out the window, and Frontier was nice enough to give us some complimentary “breakfast” of stale mini biscotti cookies, so I was set.
I 100 percent thought the pilot or staff would time out at this point, resulting in more delays, but that actually didn’t happen.
After watching the American Airlines flight that I knew some colleagues were on take off no problem, we finally took that all-important final step of leaving the ground. It was about six hours sitting on the plane prior to that — by the way, these budget airlines have the funniest tray table for ants — but we made it.
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Unfortunately, I missed not only Colorado’s but also the Stars morning skate in Denver.
Oh, and somehow, we sat waiting for a gate AND the tram in Denver Airport broke down due to a mechanical issue, which must have followed us from Dallas. Then the hotel told me their system went down that morning and that I had to wait 2-3 hours to check in. Hilarious.
But hey, I made it to Denver in time for Game 3 — my first coverage of a road playoff game. So in the end, this nightmare was easy to wake up from.
Game 3
The game experience was one of the best I’ve had.
Getting to Ball Arena was easy, parking was quick and close, I had a good seat — which had no arms on the chair, something very important for me in a press box. The DLLS Stars pregame show was fun, I had plenty of caffeine keeping me going, and I was excited for puck drop.
The game featured a massive ovation for Gabriel Landeskog’s return, plenty of drama, and a comeback 2-1 overtime win for Dallas that had the dressing room in a great mood… the game-winning goal scorer included.
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Maybe the coolest part was sitting next to former NHL defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk — who now works for the NHLPA.
Chatting with Kevin about the game, tactics (specifically around the 4v4 pick play goal for COL), his career (including his Game 4 OT goal against Dallas in the bubble), and more was a cool experience. I didn’t even write at intermission like I normally do because the conversations were too engaging.
Two days off!?
This was one of the odd playoff schedules that had a two-day break between games in the same city. And what a perfect city to be in for an extra day.
After sleeping in and writing while having a free breakfast, I headed downtown for Stars coach Pete DeBoer’s media availability at the team hotel… I thought my hotel was nice, but this one was absolutely ridiculous. There were a few times I felt out of place, but none more than when the valet parked my crappy Toyota rental car for free while calling me sir.
Do I look like a sir?
After DeBoer, I jumped on the DLLS Stars show, filmed a mini pod, wrote about how good Esa Lindell is at hockey, and got outside for a hike and walk into Old Towne Arvada.
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After dipping into many spots — and buying a new water bottle because mine was either stolen or accidentally grabbed from the press box after Game 3 — I settled on a restaurant called HomeGrown Tap & Dough. It was the busiest restaurant on the block, so I figured it might be the best option.
I got a personal margherita pizza and chicken parmesan sliders… both were very, very good. The sliders were incredible.
Then I got to kick my feet up in the hotel and watch some of the best hockey of the playoffs, plus play some FIFA on my PS4, which, yes, I did pack. I may have sacrificed some clothes or underwear, but it was well worth it for the duration of my stay.
Friday was a practice day for both teams at Ball Arena.
When I walked into the Avs dressing room after their practice, I was greeted with: “Hey, can we get Sam Nestler over here? That guy’s a dork!” That was former Stars goalie Scott Wedgewood, who is always so much fun to chat with — he was actually mic’d up for practice, so I hope the “Sam Nestler dork” park didn’t make it on tape…
Dallas practiced after, where we saw Miro Heiskanen skate the most since his injury, and found out that Oskar Bäck had an oblique injury, which required cortisone shots to return to Game 3. Bäck missed Game 4 out of precaution and will play in Game 5 Monday.
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We also found out that DeBoer loves to walk to the rink and get pizza from SliceWorks in downtown Denver. And Lia Assimakopoulos did the rest…
Meanwhile, I jumped on the Locked on Stars podcast, then went out to a lake west of the city and hiked around the beaches and hills during a cold, rainy day.
My hands may have been numb and the mud caked on my shoes a few inches thick, but I told myself I would get out for some sort of hike every day in Denver, so I made it happen.
I actually ate at the same restaurant again that night because I was gassed and didn’t have a ton of time before it got dark. This time, I got a burger and sweet potato fries. They were not as good as the pizza and sliders, but still delish.
The guy at the liquor store next to my hotel asked me if I was ever going to buy alcohol or if I would just keep coming in to get Gatorade and sparkling water. Lol.
Game 4 & the beauty of Colorado
After morning skate ahead of Game 4 — and chatting with Stars general manager Jim Nill and assistant general manager Mark Janko, I drove up to the real mountains surrounding Denver. I drove up windy roads in my built-for-offroading Toyota Camry — it honestly may have been worse and smaller than that, past Red Rocks, which is by far my favorite music venue in the world, and made my way up to the top of Mount Falcon.
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The hike was perfect, the scenery was incredible, and the air was just so crisp and clean. It was exactly what I was looking for and a great mental reset ahead of Game 4.
While my fiancee and family worried I would get lost on my hike — which is very fair, knowing my track record– I safely enjoyed the hike and actually watched and tried to help as another hiker was helped off the trail and driven off in an ambulance for an unknown emergency.
Just before starting the DLLS Stars pregame show for Game 4, I watched the final seconds of the Denver Nuggets playoff game on the giant screen hanging over the Ball Arena ice. Denver led by more than 20 points but somehow blew it and was tied with a few seconds to go.
When their star player missed a prayer of a three-pointer, and it was put back with a dunk as time expired, the fans inside Ball Arena went crazy, and even crazier when it was confirmed after video review. I don’t really care about the NBA, but that was pretty fun.
Game 4 was not fun.
Dallas started off pretty well but was eventually completely overwhelmed in a 4-0 loss that evened the series 2-2. The mood was down, and the frustration was obvious in the Stars room. A bummer of a way to end the road trip, but for a team playing without two of its best players against a Stanley Cup contender, it wasn’t the end of the world.
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In the postgame show, I got to meet Craig Ludwig’s son, Trevor, who was drafted by the Dallas Stars in 2004. I did not know any of Luds kids played hockey, definitely didn’t know they all played NCAA and professional hockey, and for sure didn’t know Trevor was a draft pick of the Stars. It was an evening of discovery.
I also discovered that I need to either include a video or some sort of warning when posting something funny or sarcastic to Twitter.
This post about a puck that snuck through Jake Oettinger got me screamed at by many, many fans, then apologized to by most of them:
Because we all know I am a known goalie and Oettinger slanderer, right? I basically ONLY talk about goalies! Come on, y’all…
I told Oettinger about this at morning skate Monday, and he thought it was hilarious. He said, “No hard feelings” for saying he laid an egg and then told me all about that shot and how nervous he was when he felt it may have slipped through him.
I got home from the game, lost my phone charger for a chaotic and panicked 30 minutes — I realized I dropped it in the parking lot — had a burrito I bought earlier that day, and finally fell asleep just after 2am. When my alarm woke me up at 4am, it legitimately felt like I had just closed my eyes; it was bizarre.
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Luckily, the drive, rental car return, shuttle, security, tram, and obnoxiously long walk to the Frontier terminal had really no issues, and I got to the gate just after the finished boarding all rows.
In Denver, at least on Frontier, you have to walk out onto the tarmac and climb these weird ramps to get on the plane. That was only a problem because my bag refused to roll on the carpet, so I lugged the suitcase (PS4 included) up a few flights and into my own full row of empty seats.
The sky was also very cool at 530am.
I made it back to Dallas with just enough time to eat, grab a quick one-hour nap, and drive over to Love Field to interview DeBoer as the team landed. After that, I believe I slept for 18 hours.
Denver, it was a good time as always. See you again on Thursday.
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