So there it is, Stars fans. The Dallas Stars will open their 2017-18 season at home against the Vegas Golden Knights. This means that Dallas will be etched into NHL history yet again.
Tonight, the Vegas Golden Knights will officially take their spot in the league as the 31st team when they announce their inaugural roster at the NHL Awards show. But on October 6, 2017, they will play their first professional game as an NHL team. That game will be in Dallas, TX against the Dallas Stars.
At 11 a.m. this morning, each of the 31 NHL teams announced their home openers for the 2017-18 season. The home opener dates spanned from Oct. 4-14, meaning that the regular season will probably start on Oct. 4.
Amidst all of the chaos, the Golden Knights announced that they would host their home opener on Tuesday, Oct. 10 against the Arizona Coyotes. Just a few moments before that, the Coyotes announced that their home opener would be against the Golden Knights on Saturday, Oct. 7.
It seemed as though Vegas would be opening their season with a home-and-home against the Coyotes out in the desert. But then the Dallas Stars stepped in.
With a clever GIF to go along with the announcement, the Stars announced that they would host the Golden Knights for their own home opener on Friday, Oct. 6.
Let's give @GoldenKnights a warm welcome to the NHL.
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) June 21, 2017
Our home opener is on October 6, 2017. #GoStars pic.twitter.com/fMNPgjjzIz
That’s quite the headline game to attend. It also looks as though this will be the Stars’ season opener in addition to it being their home opener.
With that being said, let’s take a quick look at some of the underlying storylines.
First off, this will be the Knights’ first game of the 2017-18 season. That means that the Vegas Golden Knights will play their first regular season game in franchise history in the heart of Big D. It will be a historic night, so you probably don’t want to miss it.
Secondly, the Stars are opening at home for the seventh straight season. That’s an impressive streak they have going, but we’re not complaining about it. More home games with fresh slates to enjoy.
Third, this is not the only Dallas Stars game that we know about. The full regular season schedule will be released tomorrow, but as it turns out, the Stars will also be the visitor for another team’s home opener. That team is the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, Oct. 7.
Piggybacking off of that point, the Stars will open their season with a back-to-back scenario. It also means that Stars new head coach Ken Hitchcock will visit his former team in the second game of the year. Hitchcock spent the past six seasons as the head coach of the Blues before being fired on Feb. 1, 2017. He was hired by Dallas on Apr. 13.
This will all make for a jam-packed first weekend of action with plenty to follow.
Once we find out the Golden Knights’ roster tonight, speculating and dreaming about the opening night will become that much more exciting.
Lastly, it turns out that my theory was simply coincidence. Over the past four years, the Stars had opened their season at home with one team from each of the four NHL divisions, but considering Vegas is a Pacific team, the theory has hit a dead end.
Next: Stars' Chances Of Bargaining With Golden Knights
But, I digress. It will be an exciting night watching Vegas unfold their new franchise at the American Airlines Center. Hopefully there will be a sea of Victory Green to greet them. Until then, all we can do is watch the countdown. 107 days.