Finding focus: Stars holding onto perspective through early season sprint

Growing up in Northern Michigan, my family would often venture off to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes for a day of respite.

As we piled into the 1964 Impala Station Wagon (man, I miss that car) and scrambled to see who get the much-desired seats in the “back-back,” we headed out with the main purpose (for our parents, at least) to work off a little of the precociousness that the summer had built.

One of the favorite activities with my siblings was to see who could race to the top of the first dune the fastest. We each had different sizes and skills, but it was a pretty fair contest most of the time.

As we returned year after year, I learned a trick that helped me in my dashes: Don’t look up. That’s right, you start to ponder the end of the journey, and it really did seem to affect your resolve. Head down, full climb, and you’re at the top before you know it.

It’s a great metaphor for life, and I was lucky to learn it early.

There’s no sense getting caught up in the distractions when you have a simple task at hand. By staying focused on yourself and what you can control, it really makes things quite manageable.

The Stars are already learning that this season. The losses to Minnesota and Florida were a little bit jarring last week, as this team has pretty much been in every game this season before that. The game against Los Angeles on Monday was a great chance to find themselves again – a sort of Sleeping Bear Dune to conquer.

What was great about the 4-1 victory was the fact that there were potential distractions all over the place. Mikko Rantanen collided with Los Angeles goalie Darcy Kuemper, and the puck went into the net. It was immediately called no goal, but then went to review. The Kings were clearly upset and felt there was a penalty, but the Stars have been burned by similar plays this season, and coach Glen Gulutzan said he was actually pondering an official challenge because Rantanen was outside the blue paint of the crease and was pushed into the contact.

“For me, had the score been different, that one’s close to being challenged,” Gulutzan said of a 0-0 game late in the first period. “I thought some of the contact was in the white and there was some pushing there. It would have been close for me, to be honest with you.”

But, in a quick decision, Gulutzan showed restraint. He accepted the call and helped his team move forward with purpose. That’s a huge deal, especially when you consider how important the game was. Sure, Dallas has a massive cushion in the standings and yes, the sane thing to do is to not panic, but that’s not always easy in sports. Bottom line, they still weren’t playing great hockey, and three consecutive losses does create a bit of mental static for any team.

That’s why it was kinda big when Casey DeSmith misplayed a puck that ended up in his own net for the first goal of the game, and then Jamie Benn had a goal disallowed for pushing the goalie’s pad along with the puck over the goal line. Mix in some calls that upset the American Airlines Center crowd, and you probably could have passed a vote in the arena that it was indeed time to riot.

Gulutzan and his team did not.

Instead, the lads in Victory Green summoned their own “sand dune peace” and moved forward in a forceful, but focused manner.

Not to throw the new/old head coach under the bus, but it wasn’t always that way for Gulutzan. When he was leading the “Pesky Stars” back in the days of bankruptcy, his bench had a bit of a reputation as whiners. One of his memorable quotes at the time was that he would go back to Saskatchewan before he would let that happen, but it was something he had to deal with.

Then, when he went to Calgary, he tossed a stick into the stands at practice, and that was stapled to his resume as well. So to see this side of him is important.

Gulutzan talked about the scar tissue that has built up on him over the years, and that calmness is hard-earned. He has coached beside some of the greatest bench bosses in the league, he has coached some of the greatest players in the league, and he has coached during some of the most intense moments any coach could face.

So he is a different man than he was a dozen years ago.

He needs to be.

After playing 12 games in 21 days, it’s almost laughable to say the Stars haven’t played the toughest part of their schedule. They have 11 of 15 games on the road in January, including a six-game trip that features a cross-country hike from D.C. to San Jose.

Talk about pesky.

But that is the adversity that will help harden this team and prepare it for potential playoff series with Colorado and Minnesota, or whoever else may want to create some bad juju in Starsland.

Because when they get to those points in a very long year, they can remember to just look down and keep running up that hill, sort of the way they did on Monday night.

“I think it’s best for our group . . . just knowing these guys and how even-keeled our guys are . . . that we don’t let any of that get to us,” Gulutzan said of officiating and reviews and pretty much all of the smoke that fills the air each game. “It’s out of what we can control, so we’re just trying to control what we can.”

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.