Enjoy the ride: Stars preparing to dig into fascinating 2026 postseason run

Covering the Stars over the years, I am often heard uttering the phrase “This team does make things interesting.”

This year more so than most.

The Stars played in 46 one-goal games this season (second most in the league), winning an NHL-best 28 of them. They were among the best teams in coming back from third period deficits and multiple goal deficits at any time in a game. They also have done a horribly terrific job of blowing leads and allowing other teams to claw back into games so that the finish could make all of the highlight shows.

They always seem to make it fun, don’t they?

And it’s probably going to be even “funner” in the playoffs.

There is a special nausea to being a Stars fan. Those who are new to the team will quickly find the symptoms as they clutch their support pillow at 1 a.m. and pray for Colin Blackwell or Justin Hryckowian to become an unlikely hero. Those who have been tested throughout the years will be a little better handling the fever, the sweats, the headaches.

I’ve actually gotten to the point where I like it.

You want drama in sports, and the Stars have found a way to give it to you. Sure, you would love to cruise to a Stanley Cup with a bunch of three-goal victories and Esa Lindell empty-net goals, but that’s just not their style. So why not sit back and enjoy this Tilt-A-Whirl ride like Ed Belfour in that old Stanley Cup commercial.

One of the good things for the team is they seem very comfortable in this environment. They have lost Game 1 in eight of their 10 playoff series over the previous four seasons and have come back to win five times.

They typically know how to handle adversity.

In this year, they have hardened themselves by sorting through a new coaching staff, several key injuries and a travel schedule from hell. They don’t make excuses, they don’t really talk about the challenges that much, they kind of just breathe in the fire around them.

It’s like watching your favorite streaming series – mass shooting one day, followed by a breakout of deadly disease, followed by cyber criminals shutting down your computers. You get used to it.

That also has the effect of toughening up your favorite character. Glen Gulutzan calls it building scar tissue, and he’s done plenty of that. The now-54-year-old was an “overnight sensation” working his way through six seasons of coaching in the ECHL before moving up to run the Texas Stars in 2009. His work there earned him a promotion to run the NHL team in 2011, and that was both a blessing and a curse.

Gulutzan ran a Stars roster built during bankruptcy and was let go when Jim Nill took over as the new GM. He probably got the job too early because of the financial situation. He probably lost the job too quickly because of the financial situation. They wanted more, and deemed he wasn’t ready for it.

So he became an assistant coach in Vancouver for three seasons and worked with the likes of John Tortorella and Mike Sullivan. That got him the head coaching job in Calgary, and he was there for two years.

More scars, more experience.

That led to a seven-year stint as an assistant coach in Edmonton, and that run might have placed him perfectly in his new job. He helped the Oilers beat the Stars twice in the Conference Final, and in doing so, he might better understand the weaknesses of this team than any other coach available.

And it shows this year. He has made them tougher and a little feistier…and maybe even a little calmer, as well. Truth be told, he inherited a pretty good lineup. Like their coach, these guys have built up scar tissue. Jamie Benn has played 1,252 regular season games and 120 in the playoffs. Matt Duchene had 24 games of postseason experience when he came here. He has 37 in the past two years.Lindell has 102 playoff games, Miro Heiskanen 93. Heck, Wyatt Johnston has 56 games of postseason experience at age 22.

That’s one reason this team should be better than previous incarnations. Jake Oettinger is the clear veteran of playoff goalies in the West with 65 appearances. He has learned a ton. Johnston has improved, Thomas Harley has improved and Lian Bichsel logged 18 playoff games last year.

They endured all of those one-goal games this year, too – as did Mavrik Bourque and Nils Lundkvist and Hryckowian. Despite their fresh faces, they have the callouses to prove it.

So dig in and enjoy this. The Stars lost the first two at home to Vegas in 2024 and rallied back to win. They had to go to Game 7 to beat Seattle the year before. Last season, they were dead in the water in Game 7 against Colorado before Mikko Rantanen put on his cape.

Oh yeah, to paraphrase the great Tony Stark, “We’ve got a Moose” (and he’s a lot more comfortable this season).

This team has found a way to overcome so much adversity, to battle through so much stress, to earn the scars that chicks dig so much. So they can relax and get to work.

After all, you’ll do enough worrying for all of them.

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.