Earlier this week we were previewing the month of December and I said to expect big crowds on a handful of home dates. Last night was one of them. Boy, was I wrong.
13,943. For the Capitals. When all you needed to pay was about $25 bucks to get into the building if you really wanted to. And you'd have been rewarded for it with a win. Of course this blog reaches mostly Stars fans who are already going to the games or otherwise incapable of going because they live too far away, so please don't take it as a lecture.
It's more an exasperated plea sent out into the ether: "Why?"
We've said all along that if the team keeps winning, the people will come back. It's thirteen home games into the season and we're having to re-think that. Marquee teams seemed a lock for a full building. Apparently no one moves to Dallas from Washington D.C., unlike Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, New York, New Jersey, etc... Maybe we should change our outlook to "People will come back when they start winning but only if it's a Friday or a Saturday."
We don't want to keep talking about this but it is sufficiently perplexing that we simply must. 13,943 is not a good number for an economic climate as good as this one when you have a marquee team and a Stars squad that is 9-3-1 at home.
Let's enjoy this win anyway, shall we?
- NHL.com has a nice piece on Kari Lehtonen's return to form this season. [NHL.com]
- Here's a really nice read about Alex Auld's family, including a bit about having to wrestle the Dallas Stars jersey off their 3 year old son, Sam. [MontrealGazette]
- Japers Rink has a good, level headed Caps recap from the game last night. [Japers Rink]
- "Victims of a Texas Robbery" [Welovedc.com]
- SB Nation Dallas asks "Is it time to take the Stars seriously?" Good quesiton. [SB Nation Dallas]
- Tim Cowlishaw weigh in on the attendance issue. Don't worry, this one won't cause regurgitation. [Dallas Morning News]
Marc Crawford on last night's win:
"When you knock off the top team in the East, it says a lot about our group. We bent a few times, but I liked our resolve. We had outstanding performances from a lot of people.We didn’t have any passengers in our group and we knew we were going to need everybody and I think we can be better the next time we play them, too, because that’s a confidence booster for us."
Time to tackle Minnesota tomorrow. Let's keep this rolling.