Saturday, November 28, 2015

The 18-5 Dallas Stars will make you fall in love with hockey


Vancouver was in Dallas last night and it was another great hockey game to watch.   In fact, playing good hockey is turning into a habit for the young and very talented Dallas Stars.

 This is Mike Heika:
Signs of the Stars' ability to handle the challenges of a normal NHL season were all over the ice Friday at American Airlines Center.
Dallas was battling a hard-charging Vancouver team with revenge on its mind.
Dallas was battling a brief puck-handling slump that had gripped several players and left them just a little below their best.
And Dallas was battling some tough officiating that put them short-handed seven times.
And yet, the Stars found a way to win. Led by Antti Niemi's 34 saves, Dallas took a 3-2 shootout win over the Canucks and pushed their record to 18-5-0 (36 points) - the best start in franchise history, exceeding the 35 points collected by the 1971-72 Minnesota North Stars.
It was a heck of a statement game for a team that has had plenty of them this season, and it was the fifth time this season this group has toughened up and refused to lose two games in a row. Dallas was coming off a 7-4 loss to Ottawa Tuesday in which they were guilty of several bad turnovers.

This team is fun to watch.     They will be a lot more fun when they start playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs!   The Stars are for real!

 P.S.   You can hear our Friday sports show here:

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How close is Putin to blowing up NATO?

The Turkey-Russia feud raises a few questions about the future of NATO. In other words, are NATO allies ready to defend Turkey?  Or are they expecting U.S. jets to do it?   
Based on what we saw in Iraq in the late 1990s (enforcing the no fly zone) and Kosovo in 1995, NATO will come down to U.S. and UK jets doing all of the flying.
My guess is that Putin knows this and will try to force NATO to act. He is now saying that the U.S. knew that Turkey would shoot down a Russian jet. On the other hand, Turkey is telling Russia not to play with fire.   
Who really knows? At the same time, it does not matter. The jet is down, a pilot is dead and Putin just got the opportunity to prick the NATO balloon.
Putin has been trying to downsize NATO for some time. I agree with Stephen Covington:
Russia’s leadership wants a Europe without strategic Alliances, without multi-national organizations and without a U.S.-Europe Transatlantic link that can through collective policies and action offset the national strengths Russia would hold over any one European nation. It would be a European security environment that would allow Russia to apply its national strengths to great effect without challenge and competition — enhancing its power abroad and at home.
How does Putin blow up NATO? He doesn’t. He simply watches NATO blow up itself. He forces NATO to work together, such as in defending Turkey under Article 5 or fighting ISIS.    
In the end, NATO won’t work together because of weak U.S. leadership and the reality that most countries have no real military resources to bring to the game. NATO is like a baseball team where only a couple of guys can play and the rest can’t do much more than watch from the dugout.
We will watch to see how this plays out. Nevertheless, Putin is a master tactician and he assumes that Obama is weak and the West is weaker. He is betting that he will win because the other side doesn’t want to fight. And he is right!
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
Tags: Putin and NATO To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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DFW sports: The Cowboys, Stars, Mavericks, and Rangers




Tags: Dallas-Fort Worth sports, Dallas Stars, Dallas Mavericks, Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
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