Dallas Stars Daily Links: Stars Happy With Effort In Loss to Kings

“Most players other than Adam Burish, Steve Ott and occasionally Mike Ribeiro on this team are kind of boring interviews after games.”

True — specifically Morrow usually wears his super-serious face and slow, well-considered tone in official interviews. That’s why the weekly Brenden Morrow Show on BaD Radio was so amazing (don’t take my word for it — my Morrow-admiring Capitals friends were in awe of that kind of media access to a captain — all heteromales, lest you credit the squeeface) and why it’s such a tragedy that the archives aren’t up on Andrew’s Dallas Stars Page any more.

Morrow talking about being amongst those randomly selected for testing and trying to urinate for Olympic officials after handing his gold medal off for decorum, or how the physical line intently discussed anything they took for bruising/pain with an Olympic trainer before he’d take it, or wryly talking about how Ott had something wrong with him because he still torments people with the pranks most players left behind in juniors, or how Otter would totally get arrested if they ever had to fly commercial because Ott’s dad was a pilot, so all his anxious… yelling, pestering, etc. had never really been curtailed…

Some of the conversations were about good, uneven or bad games for the Stars. Not as fun, but always earnest. Sometimes he’d give backstory about fights or bench interactions. Occasionally it was about good momentum, but I remember a lot of that halting, (head-shaking, because we’ve seen it too) low-lone post-mortem he does when he’s mourning the loss of a game, road trip, or season’s opportunity.

Honestly, in retrospect, that was a terrible time in Stars history to have a captain doing a weekly check in but he made it worthwhile, and BaD made it work by making a dignified, hard-working lead-by-example kind of player comfortable enough to open up about jam on shoes and the key role of celebratory beer in Olympic urinalysis.

Given that the Ticket isn’t doing this kind of awesome captaincy interview any more… I would strongly encourage the DBD team to approach the franchise about something similar… thought without the song that insisted he sank Sharks and plus is “dreamy.” The Sharks part is quite dated, especially when it segues into Turco’s verse, “oh man, that guy’s limber.” ;)

Web clips would be less “official” than DFW radio, which might have been the issue. Scheduling too — it was a Thursday (2:30p.m.ish?) show, and web content could be much more accommodating. This would be a great time for fans to have that kind of access (host moderated fan questions?) and sense of connection with a Cap’n B that is so serious in front of a camera.

With attendance at maybe half a favorable number, I think the franchise PR folk could be willing to talk about free publicity? :)

To have access to the product (i.e. players) and build the fanbase? Yeah some of these guys are camera shy and stuff but I would love to get in depth interviews from each and every player and even our prospects throughout the season regardless of position on the depth chart, even the coaching staff. I’m talking about the Playboy style 3 day interview where the writer brushes up on that player’s stats, history, etc. and then asks good insightful questions. Man I would so read those. I like knowing about these guys, it connects me to the team I love so much even though they possess skills I can only fathom. PR gotta get in on this!! Let’s talk hockey! I loved that they had those watching parties outside the AAC on the big screen. Good idea because we had access to concessions and if only the ice girls were there selling merch? I know the team has no owner right now but this stuff doesn’t cost a lot of money and the community needs it. And so do the Stars. Go Stars!

Most people interested in learning more about the players and getting their insight to the game are already Stars fans. And at that point, you’re either paying for tickets or just watching at home. The casual fan and the “bandwagon” base that winning/ownership/playoffs would bring back and fill the seats with, are not going to be lured to the games by player interviews. I’m not saying current fans don’t love them and become even more loyal to the team thru them, but it may not entice even them to invest in tickets.
I’m barely interested in any other sports myself, and I remember seeing T.O. in an in depth interview a long time ago when he arrived on the Cowboys…I remember thinking he was charming and energetic but it made me no more interested in watching the Cowboys and certainly no more interested in buying their tickets. So take a camera shy hockey player talking about a game most casual observers in the area no nothing about, and they’ll just continue to think we’re a boring team and sport. Obviously we do have a lot of fun character guys that could give great interviews and insight to the game, but still then it’s probably only going to be appreciated by those that are already fans of the sport.
I do think the Stars do a great job of posting player interviews as often as possible for those of us that do crave the insight to the game and the locker room. Hopefully once we do have a new owner, we can launch a marketing campaign that creates some more brand awareness. In the mean time, I simply wear Stars gear everywhere I go.

I thought at a couple of points that he was just going to make a run for that door over his right shoulder!