Those, too, are dreams, a big-star, big-kid version of the ponds that dotted the childhoods of many of the players who will careen around the outdoor ice, the roaring in their imaginations translated into the real-life roaring of the crowds.
We start with the story of goaltender Scott Darling, who would have been content with one game for the Blackhawks, but has played in 56 of them, and who has not lost the appreciation for the fantasy he is living. Or his sense of humor.
"I'm surprised you want me to depreciate it, putting my signature on there," Darling says while being asked to sign a Patrick Kane jersey at a Blackhawks holiday event for season ticket holders.
It's a self-deprecating sentiment lost on the kids who look at him with veneration, overjoyed to simply stand next to him posing for pictures, basking a little bit in the glow.
We see that reflected back, later, when Blackhawks forward Andrew Desjardins visits a Chicago fire station with his wife and son, when the awe with which kids usually look at hockey players is evident in the eyes of 2-year-old Ames. There is, perhaps, a dream there too.
We see the dream of spirits raised in a downtrodden Detroit, the sense of a community coming together under a coach born in the Motor City and raised in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, We see Jeff Blashill, someone who understands how his team can fill in the holes - even if briefly - for a city waiting for a resurgence.
We see, even, in a lighter moment, the dream of a well-decorated house, visiting with Detroit's Dylan Larkin and Luke Glendening as they try (with some success) to get their holiday lights strung just so, to see their stockings hung with care.
We see a dream of a Stanley Cup 50 years in the making, as the Blues inch closer to a title at the same time that a 20-year coaching career nears its end, when Ken Hitchcock gets one more chance to duplicate the championship he won back in 1998-99 with the Dallas Stars.
"You start to think about how hard it was to get there, and then how are you going to find that energy to go through it again," Hitchcock says of the Blues last season. "I think that's the key to starting a new season: Can you reconnect to new energy?"
We see the dream of a new era in Toronto, of a new crop of Maple Leafs hoping to raise a team that, for so long, has disappointed a city at the center of the hockey world.
We see a game-winner by a local kid in a visiting rink, the joy of friends and family in the stands, the highest hopes of a kid lighting up the face of an adult. We see the anticipation - the stress - of making it to June, and of making it through December first. We see work and family and hopes realized and dashed and injury struggles and teams coming together and unguarded moments along the way.
We see harsh words unleashed by a team captain - Henrik Zetterberg - in a closed-door meeting as he sees a dream possibly slipping away.
Ultimately, as the show reminds us, this will all culminate in January with these players featured on one of hockey's biggest stages. But before we get there, we get to see them "continue their exploration of what the game has in store for them."
And what it has in store for us, too.
