I came across a post from the awesome Twitter page “Dallas Stars History” the other day. Please go follow them; it’s a great source of Stars history and nostalgia.

Here’s the post: 

My first reaction was, ‘Holy crap, that was six years ago! And, ‘I forgot the bubble went into the Fall.’ But that got me thinking about the entire 2019-20 season and Cinderella bubble run to the Stanley Cup Final for Dallas.

If I’m being honest, I spend far too much time thinking about that bubble. It was a crazy year for me, and obviously, for the Stars. 

I was living alone in a closet of an apartment in LA at the time. While listening to the Black Lives Matter riots and police activity in the streets outside, I closely watched 24 NHL teams compete for the Stanley Cup in two Canadian bubbles.

I spent a lot of time at my brother’s house in Orange County to get away from the City of Angels that was literally being burnt down by day. It was a heatwave in California… Probably barley hitting 90 degrees, but most homes don’t have air conditioning, so it was freaking hot. I watched every single game during those playoffs. Usually sitting on the couch in sweat shorts and a hockey sweater, sweating (duh, I was wearing two items with the word sweat in them) my butt off before jumping into the ice bath between periods and returning to my ready position. 

That, along with the outdoor workouts, contrast therapy sessions, and tactical training that almost got us arrested, made COVID far less suck. It still sucked, don’t worry. But those things kept me busy. And watching so much hockey was also what led to me starting to write my own hockey blog, just for fun. It was called “Written in the Stars.” Clever, huh? And that blog is what got me attention from other blogs and eventually led me to Dallas, NJ, and back to Dallas for the amazing opportunity I have at DLLS.

Important time period, eh? 

But this article is not about me. Even though I just ranted about myself for multiple paragraphs. Sorry about that. No, this article is about remembering the incredible run to the Final in 2020 and all the cool and funny memories that came along the way, 

If you have not watched the awesome “We’re Not Going Home” documentary by Jeff Toates, go ahead and do that before or after reading this. It’s so good.  

Dallas signed longtime Sharks captain, Joe Pavelski, ahead of the 2019-20 season. They saw their head coach — who was expected to be their guy for a long time — get fired for inappropriate behavior. They saw assistant coach Rick Bowness take over the bench as interim. They had plenty of ups and downs, including an awful hard time scoring goals. They lost their starting goalie, Ben Bishop, likely for the season and turned to backup Anton Khudobin. 

Then the world shut down. And no one knew if it would ever go back to normal again. 

Well, the NHL found a way to make it feel at least a bit normal, announcing that the top 24 NHL teams would go into bubbles in Edmonton and Toronto to play for the Stanley Cup.

There was daily testing, isolation, social distancing, masks, video game monitors, the whole shebang. At least the food looked good… 

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