2017-2018 Stars Season Thread

[slaps]

What's the point of being so protective of 1st-round picks if all they are going to do is play 10 minutes on the 4th line 6 years after the fact?

I'm fine gambling a 1st or a 2nd round pick on a guy who is a consistent 20+ goal scorer.

[Jason]

What's the point of being so protective of 1st-round picks if all they are going to do is play 10 minutes on the 4th line 6 years after the fact?

I'm fine gambling a 1st or a 2nd round pick on a guy who is a consistent 20+ goal scorer.

All they do is sell low on players they pick high, since they don't give them a legit chance. If that's all they are going to do then they might as well just trade every single pick, as they waste the entire picks value. Then in 5 years they'll be the worst team in the league.
The entire development aspect in the system in horrible. AHL and NHL. The players who do best in the organization come from Europe, other organization, or College. If players take the CHL route then go to the AHL they get worse.

It took them so many years to finally hire a goalie coach for the minors, they just don't put in the effort, resources on player development and it shows.

[Troy McClure]

I saw Colton Point decided to stay in school for his junior year even though Nill wanted him to go pro. I can't help but wonder if Point is trying to stay away from being part of the team's development-killing system.

[cdanew]

I saw Colton Point decided to stay in school for his junior year even though Nill wanted him to go pro. I can't help but wonder if Point is trying to stay away from being part of the team's development-killing system.

If I was Colton Point and I could get another year of development at a good, competitive college program and avoid the possibility of being assigned to the ECHL, I'd make that same choice.

[cdanew]

We all knew it was bad, but maybe didn't realize how bad.

[SaintAngerBH]

As long as it results in a massive overhaul in management/coaching/development, I am fine with that.

[atticus ross]

It won't. But it should.

[Knives Out]

Blatantly acknowledging that they don't try in the 3rd.

[#JTONTFJTGM]

I want to punch Razor in the face every time he calls him “The Captain” with such obvious capital letters. Just stop.

I realize Razor and Luds are employees of the Stars and can only criticize so far, but seriously. Their ass kissing of Benn and Kari is nauseating.

After the loss to the Bruins with 11 seconds remaining, at the 2:00 mark Razor talks about how great Benn was in the game and that he's been in Beast Mode for the last month:

[BigAl]

Jamie looks like like he’s playing with post concussion syndrome at times. Especially at his own blue line last night when he struggled to get the puck out of the zone, repeatedly.

[SaintAngerBH]

Razor was high.

[slaps]

Holy *poo poo*, did Razor get into Belfour's stash?

[#JTONTFJTGM]

Holy *poo poo*, did Razor get into Belfour's stash?

[SaintAngerBH]

What would Mike Modano know about "beast mode" anyway.............

[Jason]

[#JTONTFJTGM]

What would Mike Modano know about "beast mode" anyway.............

In Jerry Jones voice: "Did you enjoy that Stanley Cup and near repeat? I hope you did. I hope you did very much."

The composite scoring totals from the 14 games the Stars played in the 1999 and 2000 Western Conference Finals against the Colorado Avalanche:

Mike Modano: 4 goals, 14 points

Peter Forsberg: 4 goals (one was an empty-netter), 12 points

Joe Nieuwendyk: 5 goals, 11 points

Joe Sakic: 2 goals, 8 points

In the Stars' six-game win over the Buffalo Sabres in the 1999 Stanley Cup Final they scored 12 goals against Dominik Hasek and Modano assisted on seven of them, including each of their last five in the last three games.

Jere Lehtinen scored five points in the series and no other player on either team scored more than three.

45:29 mark:

The story of Game 3 of the 1999 Stanley Cup Final: http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/sports/injured-modano-pains-sabres-article-1.824024

Between Games 5 and 6: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/19/sports/stanley-cup-finals-danger-now-modano-s-middle-name.html

Game 6: https://www.nhl.com/stars/video/defining-moments-the-cup/t-289283314/c-52381303

From Sports Illustrated's series recap:

Modano was as good as his vow in Dallas's 2-0 victory in Game 5, setting up defenseman Darryl Sydor's power-play goal with a sweet cross-ice pass from the right half boards and creating the second goal with sheer determination. Modano pried the puck from Buffalo defenseman Alexei Zhitnik along the boards and then kicked it ahead to defenseman Richard Matvichuk for a two-on-one break that wing Pat Verbeek finished with a deke and a backhander. Despite his left (shooting hand) wrist being fractured in Game 2, Modano also won 15 of 23 faceoffs, stole the puck three times and blocked a shot. These weren't the little things; they were huge things.

Modano continued his rejuvenation in Game 6, taking a wipeout hit from forward Erik Rasmussen along the boards to make the play that led to the Stars' first goal and starting the Cup-winner with his strong work down low. He should have been exhausted by then. He had played 46:12, six minutes more than any other forward in a game that would have had a guaranteed spot in the safe-deposit box of the memory even without its contentious conclusion. "When we thought the game was special was going into the third overtime," Hitchcock said. "We knew that whichever way it turned, we were going to be part of something that people would be talking about for a long time."

They were part of something special that people would be talking about for a long time, but apparently not remembered all that well by the team's play-by-play announcer and some of its fans.

Facing elimination in Game 5 of the 2000 Stanley Cup Final in New Jersey, Sergei Zubov played 38:55 on 47 shifts which was second-most among Stars' defensemen to Derian Hatcher's 42:44 on 50 shifts: http://www.hockey-reference.com/boxscores/200006080NJD.html

In 43:37 of playing time this was Modano's 60th shift of the game:

Larry Robinson had been asked how tough it would be for the Devils to lose a six-period game, travel to Dallas, then try to motivate themselves to close out the series Saturday night on the road.

''Well,'' said Robinson, making a late-night attempt at levity, ''I think we are the fresher team anyway. With Modano playing about 75 minutes tonight, he probably played more than half our team put together. ''Every second shift he was out there,'' Robinson said about Modano, who turned 30 on Wednesday and played a team-high 43 minutes 37 seconds. ''And he's not a young man anymore."

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/10/sports/stanley-cup-finals-stars-say-winning-gives-them-momentum.html

The Stars scored 9 goals in the six games of that series with two of them occurring while trailing 7-1 in the third period of Game 1.

Modano and Brett Hull led the Stars with four points each while Zubov went scoreless and was a team-worst -5: http://www.hockey-reference.com/playoffs/2000-dallas-stars-vs-new-jersey-devils-stanley-cup-final.html

[SaintAngerBH]

I knew it was coming...

[Jason]

Oleksiak is playing on the Penguins top defense pair and Nemeth is on Colorado's second defense pair.
Ridiculous how bad the Stars assest management and player development is. Nemeth (2nd rounder) nothing for, fourth rounder only for Oleksiak(1st rounder).

Who was the last player they sold high on, Chiasson? (Excluding selling off because they were out of it at the deadline.)

This garbage is going to keep happening until they do something about it. Which is unlikely to happen, since giving players minutes to develop isn't allowed. Need to scratch them consistently, play them as few minutes as possible, try to change the way they play, or put skilled prospects with players who have little offense talent.

Since they don't give the players consistent minutes who knows how much players could have helped out. The fact is to become a consistent top team you need to give the players time to develop. Not play them limited minutes, or scratch them.

What was the point of bringing up Heatherington to sit over and over again? He hasn't played in like three weeks, when he could've logged big AHL minutes.

Just getting Heatherington ready for his seventh defenseman role next season and to be waived within two years?

[SaintAngerBH]

Not only that, but Heatherington didn't look out of place from his first shift. He might pan out to be a solid depth player....somewhere else....

[slaps]

The organization has a real issue with properly determining a player's spot in the lineup. Shore is a bottom-6 guy, and not awful at that role. Dickinson should be up on the second line for an extended look. Honka and Heatherington should be getting good looks on the 1st/2nd and the 3rd defense pair, respectively.

There's nothing wrong with being a good 3rd-pair defenseman, or a good bottom-6 center. Every team needs those players. But it's useless to scratch them over and over, and damaging to their development to try and force them to play up the lineup for any extended period.

[Troy McClure]

You'd think Nill would be pushing Hitch to play Dickinson and Honka in bigger roles to help deflect from the growing local and national criticism of Nill's awful awful draft record. As it goes now with both of them constantly being scratched, it looks like the team thinks neither guy can play, which means two more first round busts on Nill's ledger.

[Jason]

[SaintAngerBH]

I think Hitch needs to be examined for dementia. Seriously.

[Troy McClure]

Hitch wants to win because he is coaching for his legacy and maybe his job. Coaching a team to the worst collapse in the cap era isn't how he wants to be remembered, especially in the only town where he is (or maybe was) revered as a hockey genius. He also knows finishing on a big winning streak can go a long way to making his bosses feel better about the job he's doing.

[SaintAngerBH]

He is delusional if he thinks these last 4 games mean anything.

[#JTONTFJTGM]

Hitch wants to win because he is coaching for his legacy and maybe his job. Coaching a team to the worst collapse in the cap era isn't how he wants to be remembered, especially in the only town where he is (or maybe was) revered as a hockey genius. He also knows finishing on a big winning streak can go a long way to making his bosses feel better about the job he's doing.

Hitch will be remembered as a hockey genius in Toronto where he'll be immortalized when he's finished coaching.

You should hope that his bosses are smart enough to recognize how shitty the team they gave him to coach is since they watched much of it be even shittier last season.

[SaintAngerBH]

Hitch wants to win because he is coaching for his legacy and maybe his job. Coaching a team to the worst collapse in the cap era isn't how he wants to be remembered, especially in the only town where he is (or maybe was) revered as a hockey genius. He also knows finishing on a big winning streak can go a long way to making his bosses feel better about the job he's doing.

Hitch will be remembered as a hockey genius in Toronto where he'll be immortalized when he's finished coaching.

You should hope that his bosses are smart enough to recognize how shitty the team they gave him to coach is since they watched much of it be even shittier last season.

While this is true, it doesn't change the fact that Hitch hasn't actually won anything in almost 20 years. The game has passed him by.

[slaps]

Hitch wants to win because he is coaching for his legacy and maybe his job. Coaching a team to the worst collapse in the cap era isn't how he wants to be remembered, especially in the only town where he is (or maybe was) revered as a hockey genius. He also knows finishing on a big winning streak can go a long way to making his bosses feel better about the job he's doing.

Hitch will be remembered as a hockey genius in Toronto where he'll be immortalized when he's finished coaching.

You should hope that his bosses are smart enough to recognize how shitty the team they gave him to coach is since they watched much of it be even shittier last season.

Going from a D average to salutatorian of summer school isn’t much to write home about.

[Troy McClure]

Hitch will go to the Hall of Fame, but that has nothing to do with the bad job he did this season.

[ToddM]

Hitch will go to the Hall of Fame, but that has nothing to do with the bad job he did this season.

Or maybe that has everything to do with it.

"Hey Hitch, maybe we need mobile d-men to counter--"
"I WON A CUP 20 YEARS AGO!! We're putting Matvichuk 2.0 out there and KEEPING him out there because I KNOW HOW TO WIN IN 1998!!"