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it's a moment in time that lasts forever

#dallas stars #anton khudobin #jake oettinger #fancams #my videos :)

Hi I hope this isn't a dumb question but I'm a new Stars fan (This is actually my first time watching the hockey season) and I was wondering what the "We're not going home" phase is from and why did some people here got emotional when Khudobin said it during our home game on Tuesday

hi!!! there are no dumb questions!!!! the phrase came out of the 2020 bubble playoffs which, wild as it is to realize, were nearly five years ago 😭 so even if you'd been watching for a couple seasons it's the kind of thing that you might've missed anyway!!!!!

technically (& i didn't even fully remember this!) the stars using 'we're not going home' as a rallying cry in the bubble didn't even originate with dobby!!! joel kiviranta said it first, after the stars beat colorado in game seven of the second round thanks to his overtime game-winning hat-trick goal.

the stars' player of the game token at the time was a chain with a big dallas logo in it; a long-haired roope rightfully handed it over to kivi, the room called for him to give a speech, and in response kivi said, 'fuckin' right. we're not going home!'

it became associated with dobby when he was given the player of the game token after the stars beat vegas in game five of the WCF, and succinctly said, 'WE'RE NOT GOING HOME!' before putting the chain on.

all the love to kivi but dobby just said it with a little more panache!! he'd presumably had more time to think on how he wanted to use the phrase!!! also, as you may or may not know, espn+ had a series called quest for the stanley cup for a couple of seasons (it looks like 2023 was the last, maybe because the amazon documentary series kind of took over last season? who knows) & the title of the fourth episode was 'we're not going home' & featured dobby's use of the phrase as a closer to its coverage of that series, which i think helped cement it as dobby's in general hockey media. sorry kivi. we will always have 'joel fucking kiviranta' though!

anyway. all that to say, it was very nostalgic to hear dobby say it on tuesday!!!!!! it's such a Bubble Playoffs Phrase because it just .......... wouldn't really make sense as a rallying cry any other year. eliminated teams in 2020 left the bubble pretty immediately after getting eliminated so everyone could go home & go back to quarantining and waiting to hear what the league's plan was to return to play for the next season.

obviously most of the time, getting to go home during the playoffs is a good thing!! it's part of why teams want home ice advantage so much!!!

2020 flipped everything on its head though & turned being stuck in a hotel in edmonton for that much longer into a good thing. 'we're not going home' essentially just meant 'we're moving on to the next round' but it sounds so much cooler. dobby saying it on tuesday didn't literally mean 'we're not going home' so much as it meant 'we're moving on,' except that he was a game early so once more: can he please come back on saturday?? for the vibes???

i really wish i could easily put footnotes into a tumblr post but here are some sources:

rmnb put out an article about dobby saying 'we're not going home!' because andrej sekera referred to him as the russian machine, which is ovi's nickname. this was super useful in sourcing the vidoes of kivi & dobby saying the phrase from the stars twitter so shoutout to them.

espn did a recap article about the 'we're not going home' episode of quest for the stanley cup, which is kind of fun as an artifact now because pete was vegas' coach when dallas beat them! which i Knew but had like. kind of forgotten. 'Apparently DeBoer greeted every Stars player with "go win it" after they eliminated Vegas in the Western Conference finals.' pete can you somehow bring this energy back but in the locker room this time & with some extra juice. please pete i'm begging.