The Dallas Stars will open their 2018-19 season tonight against the Arizona Coyotes on home ice. And just from today’s morning skate, there’s a multitude of stories and news to keep pace with. Here comes game one.
Tonight begins yet another long and enticing journey into regular season hockey action for the Dallas Stars. And yes, the players are just as excited as the fans.
“It feels special every time,” said defenseman Esa Lindell after morning skate. “Like yesterday, I had that tickling feeling like, ‘Tomorrow, it all starts again.’ It’s way different than the preseason. And for us, it’s been a really long summer so it’s nice to get back to action.”
“They’re all pretty similar,” added forward Tyler Seguin about his opening night feelings. “It’s kind of like the first day of school and the metal, big butterfly in your stomach. I mean, you’ve just trained for five months. I guess the one thing I’ve learned over time is that it’s still one game and you’ve got a marathon. Don’t think too much and get to the basics. You try to stay away from bringing up wins and losses and just do your job.”
But on top of the weathered NHL veterans being excited, you’ve also got wide-eyed rookies preparing to make their NHL debuts.
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“It’s a really good feeling,” said forward Roope Hintz. “I’m excited and I’m just ready to go. Just get rid of the nerves and enjoy the moment.”
“Of course, it’s a great feeling with your first game in the NHL,” added defenseman Miro Heiskanen. “It’s a really good feeling. I’ve dreamed about playing in the NHL and now it’s true. It’s a great feeling.”
All of these different perspectives from the 23-man roster seem to fall under one similar umbrella: nervous excitement. And where does that come from?
Well, part of it comes from past situations. The Dallas Stars have been through a bit of a rough transition over the past few years, going through two coaches in two seasons and bringing in Jim Montgomery as a third for the 2018-19 year. They’ve failed to qualify for the playoffs since 2016 when they won the Central division and have seen a steep and unexpected descent from their place of prominence just over two years ago.
But another part of it has to do with the potential for the journey ahead. After another disappointing finish last year, the Stars bounced into the offseason with new plans. They rebuilt some of their roster, added a new coaching staff with a different vision and plan, and secured themselves for the future with some sizable moves. And now, it’s time to put it all into motion.
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That first opportunity comes on Thursday night when Dallas will open up their season at the American Airlines Center. They will welcome in the Arizona Coyotes for a 7:30 p.m. puck drop as both teams attempt to get off on the right foot in their 2018-19 seasons.
But through the morning skate, it was clear that Jim Montgomery wasn’t necessarily seeing what he expected.
“Well, I had a message ready that, ‘Hey, it’s opening night, but let’s play on our toes,’ but I had to actually switch it because the guys were pretty tight this morning,” said Montgomery. “I told them that, ‘I thought I was going to be the nervous one, not you guys. You guys have been through this a few times except for a couple of you.’ But that was the message to try and just loosen it up and focus on our process for tonight.”
The 23-man roster participated in their first morning skate of the season today, and the results gave way to plenty of important storylines. Let’s take a look at some of them as we get you prepped and ready to go for game one.
Let the “Free Honka” chants begin
As the skate progressed, the Dallas Stars began running lines and defensive pairings for the night. At the beginning of the skate, it looked as though Julius Honka would skate on the third pairing alongside Roman Polak, who is filling in for the injured Stephen Johns.
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But following the skate, it was confirmed that Honka was a scratch for tonight’s game.
“It was all based on when we met as a staff yesterday,” Montgomery said following the skate. “After practice, we said that practice was going to decide who plays. To be honest, we knew who the top four were; it was the bottom three, the bottom two that defended the best were going to be the two that go in today’s game and defended the best yesterday in practice.”
Instead of Honka, the newly-acquired Connor Carrick will skate with Polak to make up the Stars’ third pairing.
Last season, Honka was struck with a bit of bad luck after a promising rookie campaign. Head coach Ken Hitchcock constantly resisted trusting Honka and his style and reverted to scratching him and even sending him down to the AHL more often than not. He ended up only skating in 42 games, but saw his minutes drop drastically from his rookie year in 2016-17.
Chants and signs of “Free Honka” were created and floated with the organization throughout the 2017-18 year as Honka continued to spend the majority of his time in the press box.
But now, it looks as though he will miss out on the first game. And while this is by no means a reason to overreact and assume that Montgomery will treat him the same as Hitchcock did, it’s something to keep an eye on.
“We want to see him play with more pace and take away time and space better,” said Montgomery.
Debuts galore of all shapes and sizes
It may be the first game of the regular season for the Dallas Stars, but it’s also a first for many of the players on the roster.
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For Miro Heiskanen and Roope Hintz, it’s their first ever NHL game. For Jason Dickinson, it’s his first NHL opening night to take part in. For Blake Comeau and Roman Polak, it’s their first game in a Dallas Stars jersey. And for Jim Montgomery, it’s his first time to ever coach in an NHL game.
All of these different scenarios come with different mindsets, but all involve a level of cautious excitement.
“It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in the league,” Comeau said after morning skate. “You always get a few butterflies before the first game, so it might be a little tougher than that today. But once the puck drops and we get going, I think everyone will be ready to go.”
“I think, as a player, you’re really focused on yourself,” said Montgomery of his two different NHL roles. “I was more nervous as a player than I was as a coach because as a coach, you’re so immersed in your preparation that you don’t have time to be nervous. Now, come tonight after we meet at 6 o’clock, I’m going to have an hour and a half tonight to get nervous.”
The home lineups
With a handful of players on injured reserve going into opening night, the Dallas Stars have made some necessary adjustments to their lineup. They showed them off at morning skate today, so here it is.
Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark – Jason Spezza – Blake Comeau
Devin Shore – Radek Faksa – Tyler Pitlick
Jason Dickinson – Roope Hintz – Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell – John Klingberg
Marc Methot – Miro Heiskanen
Connor Carrick – Roman Polak
The Dallas first line makes its triumphant return to the ice after wreaking a fair amount of havoc on the NHL last season. But lines 2-4 should offer plenty to watch for as well. Comeau sounded confident being paired alongside Janmark and Spezza and the three have skated well together in the preseason. Mixing Comeau’s physicality and determination along with Spezza’s puck handling abilities and Janmark’s speed should give the Stars a strong chance at producing throughout the top six, so the second line looks ready to roll.
The third line sees the return of Faksa and Pitlick as well as the addition of Devin Shore, which should bring a good balance in terms of styles and energy. And finally, the fourth line has Dickinson, Hintz, and Ritchie, who are all looking to make an immediate impact and keep themselves in the lineup.
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The visitor’s lineup
The Arizona Coyotes will likely roll with this lineup going into Thursday night’s contest.
Richard Panik – Derek Stepan – Christian Fischer
Brendan Perlini – Clayton Keller – Vinnie Hinostroza
Lawson Crouse – Dylan Strome – Laurent Dauphin
Michael Grabner – Brad Richardson – Nick Cousins
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Jason Demers
Kevin Connauton – Niklas Hjalmarsson
Alex Goligoski – Jordan Oesterle
The Coyotes are coming off of another tough season, but seem to be nearing the end of their rebuild phase after carefully crafted offseason moves and draft picks. They should pose an interesting challenge for the Dallas Stars in game one tonight.
Looking at the past for inspiration
Since the beginning of the Jim Nill era in Dallas, the Stars are 2-2-1 on opening night. Last season ended a two-season streak of opening night victories when Dallas dropped a 2-1 decision to Vegas.
It’s all about perspective. Every team wants to get out of the gate on the right foot at the beginning of each season, but only 15 or 16 start the year undefeated. Tonight is all about the Dallas Stars beginning a new era after another long offseason and attempting to get this season churning in a positive direction as the expectations continue to whirl.
“Yeah. I mean, expectations change, right?,” Seguin said about how expectations factor into opening night preparations. “I’ve been through plenty of different ones. Winning the finals, losing the finals, my first year here. Last year, expectations were so high. This year, we still have expectations, but you get that same feeling. You’re still excited and you’re still going back to school in a way.”
The Dallas Stars drop the puck on a new journey tonight at 7:30 p.m. from the AAC. The lineups are set, the Coyotes are in town, and it’s time to get the ball rolling with a clean slate and new opportunity.
“It’s Christmas for us, and we’re all just looking forward to opening that first present today,” Seguin said with a smile after morning skate.
Merry Christmas, Dallas Stars fans.