The Stars’ Success Story: Who Expected This?

I’M BACK! Wow, its been a whole day without me rambling and I couldn’t stand it. So I’m back at the keyboard and letting the words fly.

So, as you’re probably recovering from a crazy and fun-filled night, I wanted to shake the marbles up and get the gears grinding and remind you how great the Stars are looking. Not only now, but over the last year.

The Stars’ Success Story:

It all started on a depressing night on April 27th, 2013. As the Stars lost 3-0 to the Detroit Red Wings and made it an even better known fact that they missed the playoffs once again while the Red Wings celebrated that they would be going for the umpteenth time, the announcement was made that the Stars organization had fired former player and GM Joe Nieuwendyk and replaced him with an assistant GM from said Red Wings. Well, this was a relief for the fact that old Joe was finally out because over the past few years it seemed as though he had forgotten how to help the team’s success, but it was cause for pause because they were bringing in a person who had never experienced the hardships of head GM or had to make any huge decisions before. So, Jim Nill came in and started from the ground up, which came with a lot of speculation from nervous fans.

He fired the unreliable Glen Gulutzan from behind the bench and brought in the coach who was recently fired from the worst team in the NHL, Lindy Ruff. This received an uproar of response and plenty of criticism.

He then proceeded to send off Dallas’ sweetheart, Loui Eriksson, for the misfit Tyler Seguin. Once again, the criticism flowed like a waterfall.

But one year later, where are we? Far from where we were, for sure.

After a surprising season from a band of young and rambunctious guys, the playoffs flowed into Big D for the first time in six years, and silenced many. Heck, I was silenced after the first four or five games. Nill has created something beautiful and the Stars are now looking at all the teams behind them, instead of in front of them like around this time last year. But Jim Nill proved to be the best GM in the league, I don’t care what the biased awards committee said at the annual NHL Awards Ceremony. He proved all the critics and analysts wrong, the ones who said that the Stars were three years away from merely MAKING the playoffs, and at least five to seven years from making it to the Cup. Nill is proving his worthiness of the title “General Manager” and knows what he’s doing.

And he’s just getting started, as we all know.

Nill seemed to of made all the moves he needed to on the first day of the NHL Free Agency Market’s opening. He might still be hunting, but it’s not likely. But as always, never doubt Nill. #InJimNillWeTrust after all. The Stars fire-powered roster had a giant boost added to it on July 1st by the help of three new players that Nill was able to bring in, and he ended up only having to give away one that had any sort of value to the Dallas Stars squad. So, is he a fantastic mastermind? Something tells me that his mustache holds some sort of secret power that draws top names to Big D at the drop of a hat, or something along those lines.

But with the help of Jason Spezza and Ales Hemsky, who are looking at earning the title of “Dynamic Duo #2” on the Stars squad, the Stars offense will be beefed up more than ever before. Some teams don’t even have ONE dynamic duo, nonetheless TWO like the Stars now have. And with the newly acquired help from Anders Lindback, the Stars goalie situation is finally authoritative and ready for the season. The fans still have a few questions pertaining to if certain players will be bought out or traded, considering the Stars now have TOO many forwards (Jim got a little too excited on July 1st, but he’s got a plan, needless to say) and the Stars still have one compliance buyout that they could use to avoid it affecting their salary cap. But besides that and finding help on the pitiful blue line, the Stars are SET. HOORAY!!!! Last year Jim Nill was able to prove the world WRONG and build a relevant and reliable hockey team in the crazy state of Texas. Hockey can survive and thrive down there? Could’ve fooled me.

But this year Jim’s task is the polar opposite. Will the Stars be able to prove the world RIGHT and drive to the Cup? If the Stars success files out to be what many expect, that task should be an accomplishable one. But we’ll have to see.

I can’t wait till next season and I’m sure you can’t either. It’s been one helluva (Texas slang) year for this organization, and this brilliant GM is doing whatever it takes to build up this team’s recent success until he hits the heavens. Then he plans to go beyond there.

But the Stars are shining and next year will be exciting. So are you ready?

Comments below and GO STARS.