While the Dallas Stars are in a considerably better place than they were at the close of last season, they might not have what it takes to hoist the Cup next year, or perhaps even the year after that.
Leave it to your favorite neighborhood pessimist. While the Dallas Stars have added some key pieces that have been missing in a keenly obvious way, at the end of the day, there are a lot of reasons why the high spirits fostered by these moves could ultimately be our own undoing.
We all want to rewind to 1999 to relive those glory days when there were Stanley Cup winners in Texas. But we should take a stroll into yesteryear for another reason, too; many key components that factored into a grueling Stars win are still missing and could take this team more than one season to develop.
First of all, it’s true that this team has historically had good results under Ken Hitchcock. Don’t forget, though, that Hitchcock’s first season with the Stars saw good results, but ended short of its ultimate aim as the differences between playoff hockey and regular season hockey became hard to adapt to, for both coach and team.
Players have cycled through in a major way since then, obviously, but this is a problem that our modern-day Stars are still plagued by. It was the largest downfall of their 15-16 season, and it was a hindrance in the 16-17 run as well: consistency and mental toughness.
Dallas Stars
The 15-16 season saw a bounce-back because the Stars’ offense just wouldn’t quit. But this previous season, the defensive and goaltending issues were too taxing to allow the Stars to dig themselves out of that hole.
That consistency and drive and eat-your-heart-out mental stick-to-it-tiveness was what won them their cup in 1999. After three over time periods, the Dallas Stars overcame the Oilers by a meager 2-1 score. You can’t discount the necessity of scoring, but the Stars’ goaltending and defending (not to mention a heavily protested goal) kept the Stars in it.
Will Ben Bishop rise to that kind of challenge this soon after being added to the Stars’ roster? A better question yet, will all of the Stars adapt to the often intense style of a new coach immediately?
That was originally the deciding factor in Hitchock’s departure from the Stars in 2002. Despite Hitch’s winning ways, his consistent methods in the face of little results yielded a mutiny, leaving many top-notch players frustrated and feeling as if they’d been treading water too long.
I’m going to count this as a plus up front- Hitchcock knows how to stick at something long enough to see if it works. The downside, of course, is figuring out how to switch it up when it’s clear that it won’t work.
While many Stars players currently state that they’re aware of Hitchcock’s methods and are prepared to take them on in order to win, it remains to be seen what the practical and real effects of the new system will be on morale and if any damages will be covered by more valuable results.
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There’s also the argument that Hitchcock hasn’t won a Stanley Cup since the one with Dallas, and he had previously planned to retire this upcoming season after his departure from the Blues. Clearly, Hitchcock is not the Stars’ long-term success plan. He’s a bandaid.
So will he be the bandaid the Dallas Stars need? Are the Dallas Stars at a point where all they need is a bandaid? Clearly they’re not in need of a tourniquet, but are all their problems simple enough to be swept away by a system change in the course of a single season?
It won’t surprise you at this point to learn that my answer, simple and easy, is no. The Dallas Stars have problems as a team that, if not exacerbated by a new Hitchcock-powered approach, are going to take a few seasons to root out completely, such as their mental ability to stay in a disappointing or tough game all the way til the end, and leave all of it out on the ice and start the next game fresh.
The players themselves should be allowed time to adjust to a new coaching approach that has proved difficult for talented players in the past. New players should be expected to take some time to get comfortable in a new city, with a new team.
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And even though the Stars were loaded up with division titles under Hitchcock, they need time as a new group of players who have gotten used to scraping the bottom of the barrel. Bottom line, the Dallas Stars are still a young team with a lot of experience to gain before they can successfully make it out of a Cup final with the hardware in hand.