Shoot for the moon and if you miss you’ll end up among the stars. It is unclear whether that is what the Minnesota North Stars owners was the intention ofin 1993 when they relocated their team. However, the North Stars (who were just going by the Stars by 1992) did end up in Dallas to become the team we know as the Dallas Stars. This relocating from Minnesota impacted the fans, Texas hockey, and my Uncle Brad.
The Impact on the Fans.
Minnesota fans were not pleased with the news that the North Stars were leaving. It wasn’t just that the North Stars were leaving Minnesota; they were grieved that NHL hockey was leaving Minnesota. Minnesota is one of the hockey hubs of the US, so it didn’t seem right to them not to have an NHL team. It would be like relocating the Kentucky Derby to…well, any other place other than Kentucky. For fans, the relocation was confusing and a bit unbelievable.
On the other hand, if the Stars never leave Minnesota, that means there wouldn’t be an NHL hockey team in the great state of Texas (assuming nothing else in the league changes, hypothetical of course). Let that sink in for a moment. No NHL hockey in Texas, the second-largest US state, spanning hundreds of miles without a team. We would be in some other team’s market.
Can you picture yourself watching hockey this season without the Stars, and you are not wearing victory green but some other team’s colors? Who would be on your team, the Colorado Avalanche? Maybe the Nashville Predators? Or perhaps you’d cheer for the team that is geographically closest to Dallas (in this case, the St. Louis Blues, if you were wondering).
Texas Hockey
While there have been several players who have made an impact over the years, at the top of that list is a man named Mike Modano. Mike Modano came to Dallas with the North Stars, and during his time here, he became the number one American-born player and goal scorer. He holds the franchise record for almost any stat you can think of, and he helped lead the Stars to a Stanley Cup in 1999.
To put it plainly, they don’t retire your number and erect a gigantic statue of you in front of the arena if you haven’t already made your mark in the record books. Could he have accomplished all this if the Stars had stayed in Minnesota, possibly? The fact that he did it in Dallas suggests he chose the right place at the right time. With a larger-than-life player like Modano, it makes sense that he would make his mark here in Texas and, in turn, put Texas hockey on the map
My Uncle Brad
My Uncle Brad is a really nice guy. He's from Minnesota and is still winning division championships with his recreational men's hockey team. I always look forward to seeing him at family functions because we can talk about hockey. One year, knowing that his precious Minnesota Wild were already eliminated, I was curious to know who he wanted to see win the cup. I was hoping it was Dallas.
Quite the opposite, he responded that he didn’t have a favorite team to win, but he quickly, and might I say a little too quickly, added, “Anyone but the Stars.” He confessed he couldn’t bring himself to cheer for them after they left Minnesota. I believe he still has some lingering wounds from the relocation because he ended it with, “Yeah, I’m still hurt over it.”
If the relocation of the Stars to Dallas never happened, my uncle may have never been hurt, the North Stars might have won a championship with Modano, and we Dallas fans would be wearing another team’s colors, asking “what if?”