I have a problem with (most of) the Stars

This should have been dated 2/28/09, last Saturday. If you're not a hockey fan, you can skip this post — you won't care.

I'm a Dallas Stars fan. Saturday night my boy, Steve Ott, got the stuffing beat out of him by Travis Moen of the Anaheim Ducks. At the game's final buzzer, the Anaheim netminder, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, grabbed Ott, got him in a headlock and took his helmet off. Giguere let him go and a whole flock of Ducks descended on Ott. It ended up being Moen who latched on and kept punching him in the head (the reason the helmet had to be removed). This is all fairly standard hockey stuff, except that Ott badly broke his hand last fall and can't fight; everyone in the league knows this. From what I've read, Anaheim fans are pretty proud of Moen whomping up on someone who couldn't fight back. But, really, that's not my point. (And to be fair, when Moen finally tripped and fell to the ice, Ott did a WWF body slam on him and inflicted what damage he could. I'm not claiming he's an innocent bystander.)

My point here is that Ott's team mates were nowhere to be found. No one helped him. That is not standard hockey stuff. This is a serious team sport; that's a very big part of why there are fights in the first place. When hits are a little too hard, or when a valuable team member is targeted too often, the 'enforcers' on the team start to hold their opponents accountable. Except not the Stars, not Saturday night. No one came to help.

I'm so disappointed in the whole team! (And I'm not the only one.) I keep trying to figure out why on earth it happened. Ott's been important to the team this season — why would the rest of the team just ignore a beat down? This is coloring our whole attitude towards the Stars. It's season ticket renewal time, and my husband and I are actually having serious second thoughts.

We'll see how that works out. Maybe we'll get past it. Ott played last night; assuming he doesn't start looking to be traded, maybe the bewilderment and disgust will fade. In any case, here's what I have to say:

Dear Remaining Stars,

There is no 'I' in 'team.' Apparently there's also no 'you.'

Signed,
A Steve Ott fan