01/07/2008 – A meager $100 provided me an amazing opportunity to spend a day looking into the world of Professional Hockey in the Dallas Market, and it was one of the best days of my life.

I took half of a work day off, packed up my hockey gear, cameras and wife, and braved the notorious Dallas/Ft. Worth traffic to experience what the Dallas Stars and the American Airlines Center calls “The Rink of Dreams”.

Our itinerary entailed playing an Ice Hockey game against other amateur Puck Heads in our group, an early dinner in the American Airlines Center’s own Jack Daniels Number 7 Club, with a talk from a guest speaker, and then luxury club seating with our group for a Dallas Stars game vs. the Minnesota Wild.

We arrived just before 3pm and, after a painfully long inspection of our equipment by the anti-terrorism squad, we were guided to a couple of rooms where the white and black teams split up to change into our gear. I was approached by a reporter from the Dallas Morning News who was writing a story on the events of the day, and I regaled him in the details of how the Dallas Stars organization promoted youth and adult hockey throughout the Metroplex, and about our team, the Komets. A videographer and photographer made their rounds as well as we dressed. We were told the story would be in the Tuesday Morning edition (01/08/2008), but I forgot to buy a paper, so don’t know how it turned out.

The ice was, in normal fashion, crisp and smooth… Anyone who attempted a pass around the boards found out that the quality of the ice is in direct proportion to the speed and distance in which the puck travels. My reflection in the glass-like surface looked AWESOME!

 Each side split off into lines and we began play with three 15 minute periods ending with a 9 person per team shootout battle which ended favorably for my White team when ringer Chris Gallagher brushed the puck past Jon Ellis for a 5-4 victory celebration. We settled in for a team photo and made our way back to the showers.

Our afternoon continued as we hungrily made our way to the Jack Daniels Number 7 club, where we were treated to an awesome buffet and a guest speaker… none other than Daryl “Razor” Reaugh, a former NHL Net Minder and a veteran Color Analyst for the Minnesota North Stars/Dallas Stars. He was very gracious, engaging and approachable. He took questions from our group and returned classic Razorisms and insights into the NHL League and the Stars. When asked about his relationship with his Play-by-Play Announcer Ralph Strangis, we reported it was “Terrific”… He expounded on the subject by saying “If I weren’t married…” We laughed! He covered up by with “What I was going to finish with were I allowed to was, ‘If I weren’t married, I would be single”.

Hear more from Razor at the Dallas Stars Blog “Razor with an Edge”