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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Stars to Stars?

With the season winding down, studying Stars teams of the past may be just what this team needs to make a deep postseason run.

Posted on by George Delanjian
Credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images

Teams of today will always be compared to teams of the past, regardless of the sport. That’s how standards are set and how judgements are made.

The Dallas Stars have not won the Stanley Cup since the 1998-99 season, and for those who remember that year, that team was particularly special. DallasStars.com senior staff writer Mike Heika sees a similarity in this team versus the team that won it all. As he writes:

“One of the things I liked best about that [1998-99] team was it wanted the pressure. It wanted to be considered a favorite, it felt it was better than any team in the league. Remember, this was in the era when there was no salary cap, so Dallas, Detroit and Colorado were outspending everybody in the West. That set up some great rivalries, and those Stars loved that part of the game.”

As Heika mentions in his full article, the team’s current situation is very similar to how things were back in the late ’90s — where the competition level was exceptionally high within the Western Conference, creating some great rivalries.

There is also the heartbreak, where that late ’90s team faced two consecutive years of postseason exits, only to follow it up with the Stanley Cup. For this generation of Stars, it arguably started in 2020 when the Stars made the Stanley Cup Final and lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Since then, the Stars have returned to the postseason three of the past four years, having made the Western Conference Finals for the past two years.

Along that journey, we’ve seen young players develop into stars, notably Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston, Thomas Harley and Jake Oettinger. Then you have this season’s acquisitions, headlined by Cody Ceci, Mikael Granlund and Mikko Rantanen, which have added even more depth to what was already a very good hockey team.

The late ’90s Stars were similar to how their roster is constructed now:

The old Stars were the same. By adding Ed Belfour, Brett Hull, Pat Verbeek and Dave Reid, that team was able to use some veterans hungry for their first Cup win to provide a relentless push. In the meantime, the core of the team still was built on draft picks who worked their way up in the organization. Mike Modano was 28 back then. Roope Hintz is 27 now. Jere Lehtinen, Derian Hatcher, Richard Matvichuk and Darryl Sydor were around 25. Same with Robertson, Heiskanen and Oettinger today. Jamie Langenbrunner was 23. Johnston is 21, while Harley is 23.

I think we can all agree there are some strong similarities here. Heika wraps up his article on a motivational note:

“An interesting part of this journey would be if the entire group got together and made a statement…if they used everything they have learned over the past few seasons and made themselves “the team to beat.” That’s what the old Stars would have done.”

You can read Heika’s article in its entirety here.

Stars Stuff

Wyatt bobblehead night at AAC!

This is hilarious!

Around The Central

The Winnipeg Jets ended the St. Louis Blues’ 12-game winning streak. Not entirely surprising, but also a testament of just how good the Jets are. Tonight, we have several Central Division teams shaving some ice:

  • The Chicago Blackhawks take a trip to the Steel City to face off against the Pittsburgh Penguins in what is a pretty meaningless game for these two squads. Chicago may want to throw this one to increase their odds of obtaining a higher draft pick.
  • The Nashville Predators host the New York Islanders. This is a must win for the Islanders, who are all but eliminated from playoff contention. They need everything to fall perfectly in their favor.
  • The Utah Hockey Club will skate off against the Seattle Kraken. Utah is in a similar position as the Islanders, where they need everything to go right to make the postseason.
  • The Colorado Avalanche host the Vegas Golden Knights which will be televised on ESPN. This is likely a bigger game for the Knights than the Avalanche, as the Knights are trying to hold off the Los Angeles Kings in the divisional standings. This game will have playoff intensity.

The World of Chel

Got carried away singing in the shower and missed the games? Here is what you missed:

I mean, is this really surprising?

What a bunch of quacks!

This HAS to be on Sportscenter Top 10!

This is a feat of its own:

Finally

Save the date, Stars fans!

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