I was traveling this past weekend (see my earlier post for why) and flew home early yesterday morning. When I got home, I watched The Upside Down Show (my three-year-old son loves it) and Hannah Montana (there was a new one where Hannah dreamed she went back in the past and... I mean, my nine-year-old daughter loves it) with my kids, helped put them to bed, and watched Food Network Challenge and Lost with my wife.

Through all that TV watching goodness, relaxing after a weekend away from home, I forgot about something that I _really_ wanted to watch last night, and by all accounts (and the news on NHL.com) I missed a good one.

I am a Dallas Stars fan. I lived in Dallas for ten years, and became a fan in 1997. While I lived in Dallas I must have attended a couple hundred games. I saw the Stars with Lord Stanley's Cup against the Buffalo Sabres. I saw them lose the Cup against the New Jersey Devils, and I was in the stands while Commissioner Bettman awarded then-Captain Scott Niedermayer the Cup. It was cool.

And last night the Stars defeated the San Jose Sharks -- in the fourth overtime, no less, the eighth-longest NHL playoff game ever -- to advance to the Conference Finals for the first time since they lost to the Devils in 2000. Both goaltenders put on a clinic for how to win a game. Only a redirect after five long hours of play beat the Sharks.

In reading the game recap at lunch today, I realize I missed a good one.