Stars Storm Out of the Gate as Expected
This is the year. That is the prevailing attitude. The Minnesota
North Stars/Dallas Stars franchise has never been more seriously
poised to take the Stanley Cup home than they are this season.
Thanks to more off-season roster moves, Dallas will field a team
that has a slightly different look than the 97-98 version. And some
say the changes make this team even more deep and potent than its
predecessor.
Gone are Greg Adams, Todd Harvey, Benoit Hogue, Mike Kennedy, Bob
Bassen, Juha Lind, and Craig Muni.
In came Brett Hull, Brent Severyn, Tony Hrkac (again), Jason
Botterill, Sergei Gusev, and Aaron Gavey.
And in the Stars' locker room, the attitude has reportedly never
been more positive and committed to winning. "It's all smiles in
there," reported a Stars staff member recently.
That is one of the main reasons Brett Hull passed up more money and
a chance to play on his father's former team, the Chicago
Blackhawks. He opted instead to sign with the Stars for a chance to
have fun playing hockey again, and to be in the envious position of
playing on a proven, winning team - right now.
Brett only has to be there to be a threat on the ice. Gone is the
pressure he had in St. Louis to carry the weight of the entire team
on his shoulders. Now he is the setup man for Modano and Lehtinen,
as well as a vocal leadership presence in the locker room. His
swagger will boost the confidence of all the players around him.
Once Hull gets the puck while hovering in the middle, as is planned
during the power play and other times, the attention paid to him
will open up plenty of room for Modano and Lehtinen. And either of
those two players can burn the opposition, badly, if given some ice
and time to work with.
Of course, Hull is still a premier sniper, and will light the lamp
plenty of times when he gets the opportunity. Each goal will be a
bonus to the team, pure gravy, because his mere presence instantly
gives the Stars the depth and credibility needed to topple the
favorite sons of hockey, the Detroit Red Wings.
Think a first line of Lehtinen-Modano-Hull, a feisty Pat Verbeek,
and a healthy Joe Nieuwendyk mean trouble to any team? Well just
add the potent punch of new enforcer Brent Severyn into the mix,
and you have a team that has addressed all the shortcomings from
the previous version and has the muscle to protect its top stars.
The team has never been more complete. The new additions were the
perfect complement to the existing core of players, which proved
their grit and determination during last year's playoffs, making it
all the way to the conference finals despite being banged up and
missing the key contributions of Joe Nieuwendyk.
The defensive squad, already ranked as one of the best in the
league, got even stronger when newcomer Sergei Gusev impressed the
coaches during the preseason. When Gusev - a good skater - was
teamed with fellow Russian Sergei Zubov, he developed confidence
and greatly improved his offensive game.
Now the Stars are improved thanks to the luxury of having three
mobile, scoring defensemen in Zubov, Sydor, and Gusev. This added
mobility and extra offensive punch means Dallas will do even better
on the power play, a category in which they already led the league
during much of last season.
The way it is looking, the promise now is of nothing other than the
best, the ultimate prize in sports, the Stanley Cup.
"We had a rough road for four or five years in this organization,"
said center Mike Modano. "Now we're on the upswing. We're all
pretty lucky to be on this team, and we want to ride this wave as
long as we can."
Couldn't have said it any better.
Stars win on Opening Night
The Stars opened the season in fitting fashion by defeating the
Buffalo Sabres, 4-1, in front of a sellout home crowd (16,928) on
Oct. 10. The President's Trophy banner was raised in a pre-game
ceremony, as well as banners signifying their Central Division and
Western Conference regular-season titles.
During the game, most of Dallas' offense came on the power play and
was spread out equally among the team, both of which are very good
indications of possible future success.
Defenseman Darryl Sydor gained the dubious distinction of scoring
the first goal of the season for Dallas, capitalizing on a
cross-ice pass from Mike Modano during an early power play. Modano
later scored during the last minute of the first period, and ended
the night with a goal and two assists.
The other two players to light the lamp for Dallas were Verbeek and
Lehtinen. Lehtinen finished with a goal and an assist, and Brett
Hull had some quality near misses off of his six shots, but
finished the night with an assist anyway.
In case you weren't counting, that's six points from the top line.
The team scored on three of eight power plays. Belfour stopped 27
of 28 shots faced. Not a bad start.
Except for a short lapse during the second period where Dallas sat
back on the puck and allowed Buffalo to gain some momentum, the
Stars were well in control, and the offense was impressive against
the formidable Dominik Hasek. This was a good test of Dallas'
mettle against a quality opponent, and the team measured up well.
"The way we moved the puck in the first 12 minutes, I haven't seen
our team play like that," coach Ken Hitchcock said. "There was some
good transition to our game."
Hitchcock also praised the line of Reid-Langenbrunner-Verbeek, which
created the necessary energy to compete as an effective second line,
until Joe Nieuwendyk can fully recover from his knee surgeries and
return to the team.
Other News:
* Brent Severyn dropped the gloves early during the season opener,
and came out on the good end of a fight with Buffalo's Rob Ray. He
is turning into an instant fan-favorite (Texans just love them
fights, ya know!) and is measuring up as a capable bodyguard to
Modano, Hull, and Nieuwendyk. His contributions should help fill in
one of the few last missing pieces to last year's team.
* The Stars signed captain Derian Hatcher to a four-year contract
extension through the 2002-2003 season. Hatcher, who had one year
(1998-99) remaining on his existing contract, is now under contract
for the next five seasons at a total of $18.6 million.
"We had an opportunity to have one of the top defensemen in the NHL
under contract for the next five seasons, and we decided to take
advantage of that opportunity," said GM Bob Gainey. "We look
forward to having Derian lead not only our defense, but our hockey
club as captain, for the next five seasons."
* Dallas also signed forward Jamie Langenbrunner to a two-year
contract through the 1999-2000 season. No further terms of the deal
were disclosed.
"We are happy to have Jamie under contract for the next two
seasons," said Gainey. "He has progressed well in his first two NHL
seasons and we look forward to his future contributions to our
hockey club."
Langenbrunner, 23, was a Group II restricted free agent. In 1997-98,
he recorded 23 goals and 29 assists for 52 points with 61 penalty
minutes in 81 contests. He had the most points of any second-year
player in the NHL.
* To round out the contract updates, the team has signed defenseman
Darryl Sydor to a four-year contract through the 2001-2002 season.
The deal was reportedly worth about $10 million over four years.
"We are happy to have Darryl under contract for the next four
seasons," said Gainey. "He is a core member of our group and we
look forward to having him back on the ice."
Sydor, 26, was a Group II restricted free agent. In 1997-98, Sydor
played in 79 contests, recording a career-high 11 goals with 35
assists for 46 points. He was second on the team in power play
points (28), third in assists (35) and was fourth in plus/minus
(+17). He also played in his first NHL All-Star Game, suiting up
for the winning North American squad.
* More importantly Sydor, as well as Langenbrunner, both settled for
"fair money" rather than holding out and missing the opportunity to
work out with the team.
"It's enough," said Darryl Sydor. "The bottom line is I can wake up
every morning and be happy about it, knowing I can go to the rink
with a good chance of winning the Stanley Cup."
Rare words from a rare player. No, better yet a whole team full of
rare players. Their chances have never been better. This is the
year.
