Happy Holidays.

Here at Shap Shots, we got a scheduling gift from the NHL with the Dallas Stars and Detroit Red Wings playing the final game between the three-day holiday break.

As we’ve always done for games between these teams — and will ideally do for both in the postseason if Detroit can get there — it’s time to bring back one of my favorite written formats: the 20/20.

For those who don’t know, or are new here, the 20/20 is concept I dreamed up while working at my former employer as the Stars full-time beat reporter. It’s a collection of 20 thoughts/notes/stories/observations/etc… from a game and everything surrounding it.

It’s a game recap, sort of, but really it’s my brain semi-organized.

Anywho, the Stars won the Shap Shots bowl 4-3 in overtime, here is the 20/20.

1. Let me start this with a quick story from this morning.

Back in late August, after the Stars had hired Glen Gulutzan, I had a phone interview with him that I did in the car while driving my daughter to a learn-to-skate lesson.

Gulutzan and I spoke on the drive, my daughter did her best to only chime in occasionally, and as we ended the call Gulutzan made sure to tell me, “make sure she gets on the ice on time, that’s more important than us talking.”

It’s one of those fun things that happens with the human side of this business.

Well on Tuesday morning, after the Stars morning skate, Gultuzan and I were chatting after he stepped of the ice and his first question after “how are you doing?” was about how the kids learn-to-skate lessons have been going?

2. Another story, this one from a long, long time ago, again semi-related to my kid.

This week I had to explain the concept of trades to my daughter because as we were buying tickets for the PWHL game in Detroit I had to bring up the fact that her favorite player, Abby Roque, was traded in the offseason by the New York Sirens to the Montreal Victoire.

This was a tear-inducing moment for my daughter, and led to some larger conversation about how the hockey business can be cruel.

It reminded me of my time in Dallas, back to January of 2019, when the Stars traded Devin Shore to the Anaheim Ducks for Andrew Cogliano.

There was a practice in Frisco the day after the trade and Stars general manager Jim Nill was saying hello to a young fan, probably 7 or 8-years-old and asked the fan who their favorite player was.

It was Devin Shore, who Nill had just traded away.

Anywho, enough with old stories, let’s talk more about the game itself in Detroit.

3. If there’s an iconic moment from this one, it’s Dylan Larkin scoring in overtime, and slashing his stick in the air, almost like he was sleighing the dragon.

Larkin can be very quiet, almost too quiet at times, but it’s been fun to watch his passion come out a bit more as the Red Wings have clawed back into relevancy.