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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Taking A Step Back

Posted on by Adam Gaston

Ken Hitchcock is done with the day-to-day grind of a hockey season. He loved being a coach and will miss it, to be sure, but at 66 years old, he seems to be at peace with accepting a lesser role within the organization (though not completely walking away from the game):

“You’re not a big part any more, but you’re still part of an organization,” Hitchcock said Monday morning outside a Dallas coffee shop. “Tony La Russa told me that once you’re a coach or a manager, you always have to have that stake in the game. Your role adjusts. But consulting allows you to do it on your own terms.”

Though many Dallas Stars fans had some quibbles with Hitchcock’s system and player usage this season, it would be hard to argue with his overall success as an NHL head coach.  He also gets something of a free pass after bringing the Stars their only Stanley Cup in 1999.  I’m sure Jim Montgomery doesn’t want too much meddling from the front office, but he will definitely appreciate being able to get advice from the third winningest coach of all time. Here is one Hitchcock nugget that Montgomery already seems to be taking to heart, as evidenced by his lunch with Jamie Benn last week:

“It’s the partnership you forge between the leaders and you that dictates your success level here,” he said. “The reason you need that partnership is you don’t spend a lot of time on a casual basis with players in the NHL. There’s too many games, too few practices. It’s not like college or juniors.

See more from Tim Cowlishaw at the usual place. [SportsDayDFW]

Stars Stuff

Who could stay and who could go now? (I’m channeling The Clash):

To keep the music theme going — based on all of the whispers around the organization, I’m queuing up the Titanic song for when free agency rolls around and my heart will have to go on without Antoine Roussel:

Mike McKenna has been absolutely killing it for the Texas Stars during the playoffs, but Lehigh Valley’s Alex Lyon has been killing it a bit more (a 94-save game helps things):

Trivial Stars news of the day — Jim Montgomery changed his Twitter name:

Around the League

Playoff update:

  • The Vegas Golden Knights evened their series with the Winnipeg Jets at one game apiece with a 3-1 victory, thanks to two backhanded goals from Jonathan Marchessault. There were a lot of posts hit in this game. Connor Hellebuyck looked a bit off in the first period and gave up two goals while Marc-Andre Fleury had a solid game between the pipes. [NHL]/

Down Goes Brown’s Weekend Wrap is a classic. I could not agree with him more that the last thing the NHL needs is more replay (in the wake of the TJ Oshie non-high sticking penalty Sunday night):

The Supreme Court dropped a bombshell yesterday. Here’s the NHL’s take on it:

And here is something else that the ruling might lead to:

The ESPN Weekly Reader dropped yesterday instead of last Friday. Greg Wyshynski offered some hindsight on trade deadline deals and talked about some other stuff, too:

Evidently “trades” was the topic du jour at ESPN yesterday:

Confidence baby, confidence!:

If you don’t like ESPN’s hockey coverage, sorry; they put out a lot of stuff yesterday. I’m of the mind that while the content isn’t always groundbreaking, at least there is hockey coverage at ESPN again:

This seems like a bad business plan. Also, the Jets home jerseys are blue:

Talking Points