WAS IT A BUBBLE?

A bubble, whether gum, dot com, financial, soapy, housing or whatever, always bursts. Always.

They are rapidly expanding and euphoria creating entities that eventually see a "correction" when confidence wanes.

One characteristic of bubbles is that everyone in a society, not just the wealthy, are investing in the same thing, believing that they can't lose money. This is what pushes prices skyrocketing up until no one is left to buy and push prices upward.

So were the Stars - who very few had any glorious expectations for this season - just riding a bubble in the first four months of the season as they "bought in" to the plan and "refused to lose"? I kept telling doubters that they were legit but injuries, coupled with an inability to overcome them, has seemingly acted like a pin prick of non-confidence to their once promising season.

I just don't know how else to explain the evaporation of this groups ability to win.

They were within a half a dozen points of first overall in the NHL and had just won their franchise record eighth straight road game when the air started to rush out.

First it was a winnable game in Calgary that ended as a 7-4 rout.

Then three days of "team bonding" in Vancouver as a prelude to the injuries that apparently crippled the team beyond repair.

Benn and Wandell were knocked out of the lineup at Rogers Arena, then the Boston Bruins essentially knocked the season out of the Stars in Beantown.

That game against the Bs was easily one of the most demoralizing losses I've ever seen a Dallas Stars team suffer. Barch, followed by Sutherby, then Burish, all TKOed in a matter of minutes, Raycroft, trying to bounce back from the horror of Calgary, yanked almost immediately and effectively neutered for the rest of the season, and then call-up Ray Sawada gets obliterated by a blindside hit. All en route to a 6-3 shellacking.

Waiting for Barch and Burish to be released from hospital so the team could carry on to Philly, and then watching the two battered players walk onto the plane was almost as painful as the blows that broke their orbital bones.

That night on the tarmac at Logan Airport the Stars bubble completely and totally stopped expanding.

Even with those losses at Calgary and Vancouver, and another soon after to the Canucks at home, the Stars were 30-16-5 as they took the ice that night at TD Garden in Boston. They are 8-12-6 since. That's eight wins and eighteen losses. Need I say more?

As those who lost their loot in various bubbles through the years - from Tulipmania in Holland in the 1630s ( Yes, tulip flowers. They became worth 10 years of tradesman salary) to the 80s stock market crash in Japan - surely felt, the Stars and their fans find themselves upset, a bit bewildered, and bankrupt emotionally. How could this happen?

Physics and economics baby. Physics and economics.