As Jere Lehtinen stood and watched his No. 26 raised to the rafters at American Airlines Center Friday - just the fifth number retired by the Stars franchise in 50 years - his wife Jaana and children came out to stand beside him.
While the banner inched toward the sky, tears started running down the cheeks of Jere and Jaana, Olympic sweethearts from Finland who had to forge a new life in a strange land so that Lehtinen could come play for the Stars. As they watched Lehtinen's NHL career encapsulated in one evening, it all hit home pretty hard.