Dallas Stars Daily Links: And So It Begins

Communication is key to making any relationship work, whether it be with a romantic partner, a family member, a coworker, or a teammate. Fortunately, Jim Montgomery understands and embraces this:

Stars coach Jim Montgomery is big on communication. That’s been evident the first two days of training camp in Boise, Idaho with players noting that he has been crystal clear in explaining how he wants his team to play.

That is music to Stars fan's ears. I’m not going to name any names, but certain recent Stars coaches were notoriously bad at communicating with their players, often being rumored to not even really speaking with them individually, especially with rookies. Montgomery also didn’t just sit around and wait for training camp to begin to start getting the team ready; he racked up some airline miles this offseason to go out and talk to his guys:

“That was a big surprise when he texted,” said Lindell. “It meant a lot to come all the way there.”

”That shows how much he cares and how excited he is,” said defenseman John Klingberg. “We are excited as well.”

Among the stops for Montgomery was Stockholm, Sweden and a chat with forward Mattias Janmark.

”That was nice,” Janmark said. “It was a good start to be able to talk before you get over here. It was a nice gesture by him and be able to talk about things.”

Obviously you don’t win games in the middle of September, but Jim Montgomery is pushing all the right buttons (at least from a fan’s perspective) so far. See more over at Mark’s spot. [NHL]

Stars Stuff

Tyler Seguin is already a believer in Jim Montgomery’s system. [NHL]

It seems like Julius Honka has kind of been lost amid the Heiskanen hype (maybe not by DBD readers but Stars fans in general). Sean Shapiro wrote about how the coaching change sparked a revival of Honka’s confidence:

Here’s Montgomery on yesterday’s scrimmage and the short term outlook:

I feel like “line versatility” is the hockey version of “synergy” or “paradigm shift” in corporate jargon:

This power play unit might hold me:

Mike Heika is dropping observation bombs:

Jim Montgomery broke down some of what he saw on Day 2 of camp:

Razor chatted with Devin Shore about his offseason and some other things. So pumped to have Razor back in his analyst role where he kills it on a nightly basis:

I’m also very pumped about Josh Bogorad taking over play-by-play duties. Here he is yukking it up with new Star Blake Comeau:

Around the League

I remember linking to this story last year. WILD:

As I Stars fan I am obligated to take umbrage with the fact that no Stars are in the top-10 of this list:

Apropos of nothing: