Dallas Stars: Looking Ahead At Their September 2018 Schedule

It may not be October and opening night, but it’s close enough. The Dallas Stars will get into action over the next few weeks and start up another new era. Here is what to watch for in the month of September.

Welcome to September 1, Dallas Stars fans. It’s a new month filled with new opportunities.

But it’s also a signal. What signal is it, might you ask? Well, it’s the signal that hockey season is finally on the horizon.

With the month of August slowly disappearing in the rearview mirror, the lack of hockey action is quickly fading. August is known for being the “dead month” on the NHL calendar, lodged between the free agency frenzy and the start of the preseason.

It’s a trying time for hockey fans as they attempt to fill the void with any sort of hockey news possible. Players going on vacation, jersey announcements, and junior league happenings dominate the news front for the four weeks of the eighth month of the year.

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But when September settles in, everything changes. The smell of hockey is in the air, the players begin returning to their respective cities, and the hockey vibe kicks back into full swing. Teams get back together, camp sessions begin, and the preseason officially gets underway. All in all, it’s a grand time that is excitingly welcomed by even the average hockey fan.

September 2018 will once again be a special one for the Dallas Stars. As the team gets back into the swing of things in preparation for what will be a critical 2018-19 season, here are a few things to keep an eye out for as the month rolls on.

Traverse City Tournament

The first big Dallas Stars event coming in the month of September isn’t training camp, even though you may think it is. Instead, the Traverse City Tournament will take center stage first.

The annual tournament held in Traverse City, Michigan is for the top prospects of eight different NHL teams. It’s a chance for the Stars, Red Wings, Rangers, Blue Jackets, Wild, Blackhawks, Blues, and Hurricanes to see what their best young talent can do when stacked up against some of the other top young players in the league.

The tournament will commence on Friday, September 7 as the eight teams will play a “round robin” format within their division (the Stars are paired with Detroit, Minnesota, and New York). The round robin portion will run through September 10, with each team trying to build up the best record in their division. On September 11, each team will play the team in the corresponding division that finished in the same place as them (i.e. first place will play first place, second will play second, etc.) to determine the final standings of the tournament.

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Blue Line Station

Some teams have already confirmed their rosters for the tournament, but the Stars have yet to do so. Still, there’s reason to believe that Dallas will front a solid roster with a handful of their best prospects making the trip.

Whatever the case may be, it’s hockey action and a chance to see what the future of the Dallas Stars might look like. Make sure to keep up with the tournament throughout next weekend via the Stars website and Twitter.

Training camp

Though the Traverse City Tournament deals heavily with prospects and farm systems, it’s hard to argue against training camp’s legitimacy as the official beginning of action.

And this year, the Stars will be making a change from their typical training camp routine. Instead of practicing in Cedar Park, the team will head to Boise, Idaho to run camp from the home of their ECHL affiliate.

There are plenty of questions that will begin collecting answers in this year’s training camp for the Dallas Stars. Among those questions are which bubble players will make the roster (if any), who will play on the fourth line, and how the team will look when playing in a new system under head coach Jim Montgomery.

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Causeway Crowd

It should make for an exciting few days as the team ushers in a new era and takes their first reps in a new scheme.

Preseason

And finally, the month of September will close at a climax as the Dallas Stars play out their seven-game preseason schedule.

Dallas will rotate with both a home and away game against the St. Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild, and Colorado Avalanche. They also have a neutral site game scheduled against the Florida Panthers in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

These seven games will help the Stars trim down their initial training camp roster and inch closer to a 23-man opening night lineup. Performances will be critical in each of the seven games as well, with plenty of focus being put on the new system and how the team adapts to it in an in-game setting.

Tickets are already on sale for the Stars’ three home preseason games. The action begins on Tuesday, September 18 at 7:30 p.m. between the Stars and Blues from the American Airlines Center.

All in all, it’s going to be a promising and exciting month of September for the Dallas Stars. There’s a lot of action and a lot of decisions on the line. The month ahead should help greatly in clearing the air.

So let’s get to it.