They were together as a team in the same hotel they've lived in for the past 51 nights. They had no family or close friends by their side to bask in the glory of their series-ending 3-2 overtime win against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final.
It was just the Stars quarantined in Edmonton, as they have been for more than seven weeks, and they said it was just as fulfilling and no less exhilarating than it would have been in any other year.
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"We have a big lounge area here where we eat our meals and get together for meetings," Dallas general manager Jim Nill said Tuesday. "To watch the staff, the players, some guys that have never lived this before, it was very exciting. We know there's another step to this yet, but we all agreed last night, 'Let's enjoy the moment, let's have some fun with it.' They deserved that. Today, it's on to the final stage."
The Stars could learn their opponent in the Stanley Cup Final as early as Tuesday, when the Tampa Bay Lightning can advance by defeating the New York Islanders in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final at Rogers Place in Edmonton (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS).
Nill, coach Rick Bowness, assistants John Stevens, Todd Nelson, Derek Laxdal and Jeff Reese, and likely many more from the Dallas contingent will be at the game, in the team suite, taking it in, scouting, and likely hoping the Islanders can push the series to another game and another one after that too.
It'll be more time together, more of a chance to talk about everything still to come and everything the Stars already have been through since July 26, when they arrived in Edmonton, the hub city for the Western Conference for the Stanley Cup Qualifiers and Stanley Cup Playoffs, the conference finals, and Cup Final.
"I think it changed our team," Nill said of living in the bubble. "Every day, we're down eating in the same room. They're playing cards in the room. They're watching golf on TV together. They're always together. This reminds me a lot of World Championships and World Juniors. Here, you can't get outside like in those situations. It has been [almost] eight weeks, a little different than three or four weeks, but being together like this really brings a team together.
"You find out things about everybody else. Some guys have gone through some things. These guys are family men, they might be going through some things, but players step up, talk to them, and help them through things. You can't have enough of that. That's the one thing this environment has done. It's a team mentality. We've stuck together and we've grown from it."