The Dallas Stars have gotten used to thinking long-term, but a slower pace that takes the season one game at a time can be greatly to their advantage.
The Dallas Stars’ newly acquired goalkeeper, Ben Bishop, gave some pretty sage advice in a recent interview: don’t think too far ahead. Ironically enough, the Stars seemed to have fallen right into that philosophy pretty smoothly over this offseason.
Bishop claims that the sweet spot in staying grounded and not getting off course during the season is to play with a “game by game” mindset. And focusing on the short term is exactly what the Stars hadn’t been doing during the 16-17 season.
Can you really blame them though? After a wild 15-16 ride that left them on the top of the division and playoff bound but with ambitions cut short, the Stars were looking to live up. And that kind of mindset doesn’t exactly foster the slow and steady sort of philosophy that Bishop praises.
However, there’s been a real change of pace within the Stars’ organization, and it’s a refreshing thing that could have the power to put them, one skate steadily after the other, back on top.
Dallas Stars
They’ve added carefully and calculatingly to their ranks over the summer, and the Stars seem to be more mindful of simply taking everything in stride. It’s an attitude that’s been good to them in the past.
Although the season in its entirety wasn’t their best and was really one of the most heartbreaking, the Dallas Stars got wound up and were on a roll at the end of their 14-15 campaign.
Back then, after setbacks and injuries and being so far behind in the standings, the Stars seemed to adopt a game by game mentality, aiming to win what was in front of them and leave the rest out on the ice. While it didn’t always function perfectly in reality, the Stars really did make an effort to approach the latter part of that season two points at a time.
Again, they didn’t make it to the playoffs that year, but it was still a pretty magical one at the end thanks to a shift in the Stars’ typically farsighted mindset.
Bringing Bishop on board makes sense for a lot of reasons, but the fact that he’s coming into the season with such a beneficial mentality at the forefront is even more encouraging. As a veteran player with postseason experience, he’ll be looked up to in that group and will no doubt be sharing his wisdom.
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Hopefully as the Stars get swept up in this new upcoming season, they’ll be able to keep cool and take it one game at a time. They’ve improved in ranks and talent since the 14-15 season, but I’m down for seeing more of that style of tooth and nail, never say die, win the one in front of you kind of play. If they get back to that, there’s no reason the Stars shouldn’t be back on top, one step at a time.