Texas’ full handcuffs through winter’s rare invasion of the state is a scary situation, and thousands having no power or heat in freezing temperatures is a real problem. You know that. I know that. But apparently the Dallas Stars don’t seem to know, and demanded the mayor of Dalas’s office to illustrate the point to them.
You remember the stars of such episodes as trying to stand up for America and defend / fuck the flag when no one asked last week. This time, until an hour or two until their scheduled game with the Nashville Predators, they planned to play at the American Airlines Center while the frozen hell erupted around them in the Metroplex. Residents with electricity were asked to save what they could for fear of overwhelming the grid.
Meanwhile, the Stars tried to set fire to an entire arena here for a game of hockey. This tweet from Stars beatwriter for The Athletic Saad Yousuf was less than two hours before the puck drop was supposed to be:
Then this statement was released by the NHL less than an hour after game time:
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Apparently, the Mayor of Dallas had to ask the Stars to do the sensible thing and not use the strength needed to keep an arena running for this game. The AAC is on the same as the hospitals in the area so you’d think it would be healthy with scarce electricity that you might not want to risk that. But that is not the realm in which the stars live. After all, there is a national anthem to play! That will show the snow!
While you have to admit, there is something really symbolic about the stars that come in to defend the honor of an inert flag and tradition that really doesn’t serve anyone but needs to be dragged across the line and tickled when it comes to actually helping people in their time of need. Maybe the stars are as American as they’ve told us.
Meanwhile, in places where teams could get on the ice without endangering their community, the Maple Leafs endangered the mental well-being of their ever-tenacious and reasonable fan base by blowing a 4-goal, 5-1 lead for the senators and to lose in OT, 6-5. The Leafs had previously won 8 out of 10 to reach first place in the NHL’s RoughRider division. But their outing for this one saw them lead a third term to the Canadiens, and now this loss will definitely make the guys on TSN wonder if they should set fire to Freddie Andersen to appease the hockey gods or something.