Terri and I were two of more than 500 fans who turned out for the 12th annual Park Place Dealerships – Dallas Stars Casino Night, benefiting the Dallas Stars Foundation, which supports local childrens’ charities. The event was held at Park Place Porsche on Lemmon Avenue in Dallas.
Terri and Wil Ready To Play on Casino Night
The evening started out fun enough; when we pulled up to the Valet parking queue, a young gentleman with the name-tag announcing “Justin” opened my door and said…
Justin: “You wouldn’t happen to be Wil Dobson, would you?”
My initial thought was that perhaps the Dallas Stars Foundation had our license plate numbers and was getting our names from a spreadsheet as we were pulling up…
Wil: “Uhh.. Yeah, that’s me.”
Justin: “Wow, you are famous!”
At this point, I looked over the roof of the car to see if perhaps my wife was hearing all of this; she was being helped out of the car by another valet attendant however, so I couldn’t be sure.
Wil: “Haha! What?!”
Justin: “I play hockey out in Euless and have seen you around the rink, and I read your blog.”
Whew! That narrowed it down a bit. I may very well be recognized from my participation at the Dr. Pepper Starcenters or because of my shameless self-promotion on the WhereHockeyHappens.com blog, and might even be recognized from the American Airlines Center due to several annoying activities I engaged in when the Red Wings played against the Dallas Stars… Both options certainly beat out being recognized because of my picture on the post office walls.
So thanks Justin for making my evening before I even had the opportunity to walk the red carpet into the luxurious Park Place Porsche facilities!
The carpet was indeed red and we did walk down it passing the energetic and beautiful Dallas Stars Ice Girls who lined it, welcoming all who entered. It was so nice, in fact, that I got to do it all over again when I realized I forgot my camera in the back seat of the car.
Razor and Ralph say hello to Terri
The auction items and gaming tables were arraigned in a section of the building which appeared to be an enormous covered pavilion, and where one would not normally see walls, there were see-through walls of hanging plastics to keep whatever wind might be looking to come in and play craps with Marty Turco. Deeper into the building were places to eat, drink and be merry along with the professional athletes, coaches, managers and television personalities who were scattered throughout.
Terri and I know the identities of most of the personalities by sight, and one of the easiest to recognize is Daryl “Razor” Reaugh who has been doing the color commentary for the Dallas Stars since they were yet the Minnesota North Stars.
His shtick, aside from being a former NHL net-minder, aside from being something like 6′ 8″, and aside from looking like a caricature of himself, is his usage of the English language in entertaining ways during the games. Keeping with tradition, I attempted to match-up my own vernacular against his; <sarcasm> I am sure no one else does this </sarcasm>.
Razor approached the counter where Terri and I were gazing with indecision at the amazing spread of food (including prime rib, salmon and lobster/mashed potatoes) and said to us “What do we have for tonight’s dinner?”
“Pretty much anything,” I began, “you would care to masticate.”
Shelby hanging out in the Ice Girls lockeroom
Razor paused, probably scanning his database of snappy retorts, before replying.
“Judging by the size of that [prime-rib], we may very well be masticating for a good while!”
We grabbed some food and headed over to the eating tables where we ran into the Dallas Stars Ice Girls coordinator Wendy, who recognized Terri from 10 days prior when she accompanied our daughter Shelby for her “Ice Girl For A Game” night we won in a drawing for season seat holders. Wendy asked about Shelby and reminded us to bring her back.
The Ice Girls loved having Shelby with them during the game on the 8th of January, saying she was far more outgoing than most of the other little girls who partake in the program. The Ice Girl dancers didn’t take to the dance floor that evening due to a live band being there, so they had asked that we bring Shelby on another night so she could hang out with them while they danced.
Wil and Terri playing blackjack with Alex Auld
Time to play! Last year we found that it was best to grab a game table as soon as you could, as they filled up with players and dealers rather abruptly. So we picked a table out near the edge of the pavilion. Our first dealer of the night was the red-hot Alex Auld, back-up goalie and the current top minutes getter in net. I tried to chat with Alex regarding his style of play and the controversial shoot-out win Dallas had over the Detroit Red Wings just a couple of days earlier.
Wil: “Alex, what would you do for a living if you weren’t playing hockey professionally”
Alex Auld: “Oh man, that’s the hardest question of all; I have no idea.”
Wil: “Do you, or have you, played any other positions than goalie?”
Alex Auld: “Not really, no. I’ve pretty much been a goalie since I was 8 years old”
Wil: “Being a butterfly-goalie, have you tried other systems, or do you primarily rely on what you know and your size to stop pucks?”
Alex Auld: “Well, we obviously need to continue improve ourselves, but I mainly rely on being the last to react, and just try to be in the right spot to stop the puck.”
Wil: “The Red Wings got robbed on Saturday”
Alex Auld: “Oh well!”
Fabien Brunnstrom deals me 21
Also gracing our table with their formidable dealing skills were forwards Tom Wandell, Fabien Brunnstrom and Loui Eriksson as well as defenseman Trevor Daley. Being a hockey forward myself (obviously not in the class of these professionals), I wanted to ask of them things which would help me decide my next hockey skate purchase.
Wil: “Loui, what brand of skate do you use?”
Loui Erikkson: “What do you mean?”
Wil: “You know… Your ice skates. Nike? Bauer? Warrior?…”
Loui: “Uh… Oh, Bauer! I am a Bauer man.”
Loui didn’t sound like he actually knew what he used.
Wil: “Tom, what brand of skate do you use?”
Tom Wandell: “I’m not sure. Nike I think.”
Wil: “What model?”
Tom Wandell: “I’m not sure.”
Tom didn’t sound like he actually knew either.
It is my assumption that they guys probably had their feet molded sometime in the past and which ever manufacturer happened to be in the endorsement queue custom builds their skates, so perhaps it changes? For me, the skate is the most important piece of equipment (just ahead of the athletic supporter and the often forgotten hockey stick) and I just thought it would still be for these guys as well.
As Terri and I walked around a bit, we had a chance to chat with almost everyone and to get our pictures taken with them. I asked Michigan native and American born NHL record holder Mike Modano to please clarify how he pronounces Modano.
Mike Modano: “It’s pronounced ‘Mo-DONN-Oh.”
Defenseman Stephan Robidas also has his name pronounced differently depending on the country of origin of the announcers, so I asked him as well.
Stephan Robidas: “It’s pronounced as if it were said in French: ‘RrRrR-ROBE-eh-Dah’… the ‘S’ is silent.”
Ray Sawada was recently pulled up from the AHL farm team to cover for an injured forward. He came up to us, and remembering meeting him the previous year when he was brought in when Toby Peterson broke his foot, we decided to tease him (just a bit).
Wil: “Ray!! Congratulations on being invited back to the Stars roster just-in-time for another Casino Night”
Ray Sawada: “Hahahaha! Yeah, thanks. They needed me to spice up this party; I must have impressed someone during last years event.”
Click on this image and check out Treavor Daley's SIX embroidered cuffs
The blackjack table was doubling my money every-other hand, and since the chips are only valued at the end of the night when you can turn them in for raffle-tickets, I asked Daley to sign a couple $1000 chips for my kids and we moved over to watch the live auctions and to take a look at some of the silent auction items for bid.
Steve Ott, a yearly favorite here, brought in several thousand dollars for the Foundation by auctioning off half-hour on-ice sessions with happy bid winners and other won bids on an evening of bowling for them, Stephan Robidas and 20 of their best friends. I wish I was rich!
It was a wonderful evening, and it ended when we were back in our car heading home. The Foundation left a gift in the car consisting of a set of chrome bottle stoppers in a glossy-finished box which we hope to use at some point. We certainly found it to be a worthwhile event and certainly worth the $500 we shelled out for the two tickets.
Maybe we will see you next year?
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