Dallas Stars: Starting Up Their 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs Journey
By Josh Clark
The 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs are here. And after six months of clawing and battling adversity, the Dallas Stars find themselves as one of the 16 clubs still in the race. With that in mind, it’s time to get the ball rolling on what could be a special final stretch for the team.
I celebrated my five-year anniversary with Blackout Dallas this past Saturday. And honestly, I can’t think of a better way to spend the day than by writing and watching from the American Airlines Center press box as the Dallas Stars defeated the Minnesota Wild 3-0 to put a dominant seal on their 2018-19 regular season.
But it also provided me with an opportunity to reflect. Over the past five years, I’ve written over 2,200 articles covering a broad and diverse array of Stars topics. And on my “special day” each year, one of the things that I love doing is going back through the site’s archives and reading some of my stories from past years.
I do this for a handful of reasons. For one, I enjoy seeing how far I’ve come in building my craft as a sports reporter and journalist before graduating college. On top of that, stories often provide a sense of nostalgia regarding a certain moment with a particular Dallas Stars team, spanning anywhere from the 2013-14 Stars to the current 2018-19 club.
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Each article holds a memory that can be accessed and relived by simply clicking on the story and diving into the words.
As I scanned my vast collection of articles on Saturday morning, I came across one that I wrote on May 11, 2018 (just a little less than one year ago). It was more of a “throwback” article than anything, highlighting the events that had transpired two years prior on May 11, 2016.
That was an important (and somewhat infamous) day in Stars history, primarily because it was the last day that Dallas played in a Stanley Cup Playoffs game.
After posting a dominant 50-win, 109-point season and striding past the Minnesota Wild in the opening round of the 2016 postseason, the Stars found themselves tied up in a dead heat with the St. Louis Blues. They had just narrowly escaped with a 3-2 win on the road in game six to tilt the series back to Dallas for a deciding game seven.
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And though everything seemed to point in the Stars’ favor of winning and advancing, they crumbled under the pressure in a flat 6-1 loss and slipped quietly into the offseason.
Dallas followed that game up with two seasons of falling short and missing the mark. Those two years involved two head coaches, significantly different lineups, and different forms of adversity. But even with different setups, the results were the same: no playoff berth and an early summer.
The article I wrote pointed to that fact and highlighted the fact that the Dallas Stars hadn’t looked the same since that fateful night in May 2016. They looked lost, confused, and either unwilling or unable to take the next step.
Fast forward to April 10, 2019 and the Stars are gearing up for game one of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. What happened?
Well, a lot.
Hiring University of Denver head coach Jim Montgomery in May 2018 to take over for the third-winningest coach in NHL history happened. Losing four of their top six defensemen for a significant portion of the early 2018-19 season happened. A glaringly inefficient offensive attack happened. Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin turning in historic years in the Dallas crease happened. A relatively young and inexperienced Dallas blue line turning in the second best goals against average in the NHL happened. The emphatic rise of rookie Miro Heiskanen happened. CEO Jim Lites ripping Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin for their “lacking” play happened. A busy trade season for GM Jim Nill happened.
The list goes on and on. Simply put: the 2018-19 Dallas Stars have been through a lot. But even when presented with a long, winding, and challenging path, they found a way to successfully navigate it.
As a result, they are in Nashville, Tenn. preparing for an 8:30 p.m. puck drop at Bridgestone Arena against the Predators on Wednesday night. The regular season is in the past and the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs are here.
We could talk for hours about the rollercoaster that got them to this point. We could talk about the potential pitfalls that they found a way to avoid. We could even have an in-depth conversation about which player played the biggest role in helping push Dallas into the postseason.
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But instead, let’s just talk about playoff hockey for a moment.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are one of the most special times of the year. But it’s not just a special time for the NHL; it’s a special time for the wide world of professional sports.
The NHL postseason is unlike any other pro sports league’s postseason. It’s the only postseason that hands out the same trophy every year. It’s a postseason where players playing through various physical breaks and tears is a natural occurrence. The NHL postseason simply means more. The fans are at maximum engagement, every game means more than the one preceding it, and the intensity and emotion peaks at the beginning of game one and remains there for however long each team’s journey lasts.
And that’s another thing: how long will the Dallas Stars’ journey last?
Sure, they don’t have the regular season wins and offensive firepower that they had in 2016. They also finished as the seventh-best team in the West instead of in the top seed like they did in 2016. But even with all of that in mind, there’s still reason to believe that this 2018-19 Stars team is poised to make a deep and intriguing run at the Cup.
Maybe it’s because they have been counted out for most of the regular season (and even in the days leading up to round one). After all, seeding is a pretty worthless part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In the NHL postseason, it always seems as though an eight seed has just as great of a chance at hoisting the Cup as a one seed does. For a team that has been denied and dismissed by analysts, media, and hockey fans in general due to their “lacking offense” or “consistent inconsistency,” the Stars never did go away. Instead, they dug in their heels and kept pushing forward.
"“We knew any team we were going to play is a good team. We’re obviously the underdogs and Nashville is one of, if not the best team in the NHL. I’m looking forward to getting to work and real excited to get there.” – Tyler Seguin"
Or maybe it’s because they had arguably the best goaltending tandem in the NHL during the 2018-19 season. In order to make a run at the Stanley Cup, a team must have a capable, confident, and dominant goaltender that can both shut the door and run the table when needed. Dallas has two.
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Maybe it’s because of how well they seem to match up with the Nashville Predators (who won the Central division title). The regular season series provided plenty of entertainment and set the stage for an instant classic in the opening round. Both teams have something to prove in what is quickly becoming the next great Central division rivalry.
Whatever the case may be, the Dallas Stars are in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. I’m not sure if that can be said enough as we approach game one.
This team has come from a tough situation. Three coaches in two years. An epic collapse in March 2018 that punched the Stars out of a seemingly-secured spot in the 2018 postseason. Increased expectations and pressure from ownership. Frustration from the fanbase. An increasingly warm seat for the general manager.
But here they are: a challenger at the 2019 postseason table with plenty of lingering potential.
And that’s what makes this time of year on the hockey calendar so special: the potential is endless. 16 teams with one goal and only enough room for one to fully accomplish it.
The Dallas Stars are a playoff team. After a season filled with scaling mountains and leaping over caverns, they are staring down their next journey. It’s a journey that carries its own set of challenges and trials. But if there’s anything that the Stars know how to do this season, it’s answering the bell when tough times come around.
"“It’s a whole new season. The emotions are higher, the hits are harder, and the goals have bigger celebrations. It’s the best time of the year.” – Tyler Seguin"
There really is nothing like playoff hockey. And this time around, the Stars will get to participate and experience that thrill and feeling alongside the rest of the organization and its fanbase.
Soak it all in while you can. There’s no telling how long the journey will last or how long it may be before the Stars return to the postseason (remember when everyone was picking Dallas to win the 2017 Stanley Cup but they ended up missing the playoffs by 15 points?).
That’s what makes the “now” so special. The emotions are up, the fans are eager and anxious, and the entire NHL is sitting on edge for the next eight weeks.
Sitting in the middle of it all is the Dallas Stars. And after the intriguing season that they just endured, it doesn’t seem as though there’s a better spot for them.
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The puck drops on their new journey tonight. Who knows where they might take this train? That’s the exciting part of it all.
“The fun begins now,” Jim Montgomery said on Saturday night.
After all, there is nothing like playoff hockey.