Dallas Stars’ New Year’s Eve Game Promises To Be Good
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars waved goodbye to some valuable players on July 1 and 2. These fan favorites will help set up an interesting and enjoyable New Year’s Eve game. Get your popcorn ready.
For the past couple of years, the Dallas Stars have offered their fans the satisfaction of a New Year’s Eve game. It is a tradition that goes back over a decade, and the Stars have always given their fans an enjoyable show.
The games used to correlate with Big D NYE, the New Year’s Eve party for the Dallas-Fort Worth area that was stationed right outside the American Airlines Center in Victory Plaza. Fans could quickly move outside to start celebrating immediately after the Stars’ game ended.
Over the past few years, the Dallas Stars have been very successful in their last game of the calendar year. This past year, they beat the Nashville Predators in a 5-1 thumping. The season before, they humiliated the Arizona Coyotes by a final score of 6-0. Back in 2013, they defeated the eventual Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings 3-2.
Over the past seven years, the Stars are 6-1-0 on the Eve. They are slated to continue their tradition and play another game on NYE this year, but their opponent just recently became a significant one.
The Dallas Stars will welcome the Florida Panthers to the American Airlines Center on December 31, 2016 for their annual New Year’s Eve celebration.
That’s no big deal, right? The two teams are on the rise and in different divisions and conferences. So it’s not going to be a significant game, is it?
Well, it will be. Dallas will be welcoming a plethora of former Stars to the AAC on the 31st, including some that just departed in free agency.
Donning the red and white on NYE in a sea of victory green will be D Jason Demers (14-16), F Colton Sceviour (13-16), F Reilly Smith (2013), F Jussi Jokinen (05-08), and F Jaromir Jagr (2013). All played with the Stars at a certain point in their career, and each had a significant role in helping the Dallas Stars become what they are now.
Smith may be the most significant, considering he was one of the prime pieces in the trade on July 4, 2013 that brought Tyler Seguin to Dallas, thus solidifying the Stars’ offense into the most lethal attack in the league.
While losing Demers and Sceviour did not necessarily plague the team in terms of performance, it did put a hole in some of the hearts of Stars fans who had become emotionally attached with the fan favorites.
The fact that the Panthers and Stars will be meeting for the first time of the 2016-17 season on NYE only furthers the speculation that things are going to get very interesting. The Stars have seen some dominant success in the New Year’s Eve game over the past few seasons. It will be intriguing to see if they can keep it up with so many former Stars on the other side of the red line.
Not only that, but the Florida Panthers are also building quite a scary lineup. Along with Sceviour and Demers, the Panthers also added Keith Yandle and James Reimer this offseason. After winning the Atlantic Division last season, it looks as though they could make a run at the crown once again.
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But hey, the Dallas Stars are in the same boat. So keep your heads up, Stars fans. It’s going to be an exciting season.