Heika: For these Stars, 'Team of Destiny' seems pretty fitting

My old football coach Jim Ooley was a funny guy.
When talking about our undersized football team and how it was surprising the downstate powers in the playoffs, Coach Ooley told the media: "They might be bigger, and they might be faster, and they might be stronger…but we're dumber."
The media had a quizzical look, until he gave them the zinger.

"We're so dumb, we don't know that we're not supposed to win," he said.
It was a great line, and it became even greater when our slow, small team ended up winning the state championship in 1978. Coach Ooley called us a "team of destiny," which was the first time I heard that phrase.
I'm hearing it again these days.

The Dallas Stars are not slow or small. In fact, they're pretty darn talented by NHL standards. But they are not the favorites, and they are not the analytical darlings, and they're not even a loveable underdog. They are simply a team that finds a way to win.
And maybe that is destiny.
To be fair, general manager Jim Nill has put together a pretty good squad. He's been at this since 2013, so this is his team. He made the trade for Tyler Seguin, and he named Jamie Benn the captain, and he brought in Alexander Radulov and Joe Pavelski and Anton Khudobin and Corey Perry as free agents. His people drafted Miro Heiskanen and Roope Hintz and Denis Gurianov and Jason Dickinson.
He found a way to get Rick Bowness to sign on and become a mentor for young coach Jim Montgomery. In fact, Bowness said recently that Nill was the reason he decided to join the Stars.
That is planning.
And the time for that plan to bloom was this year.

I've said dozens of times on radio or the podcast that I hope the Stars realize what a great chance they have this season. Khudobin can become a free agent in the summer, same with Perry and Andrej Sekera and Mattias Janmark. Bowness may or may not want to be the head coach going forward. Who knows what damage the NHL's shut down has done to the team's budget going forward and what limitations they might have?
So if you're in that room, you had to have an idea that this weird year might be the one. And that's kinda strange in itself.
As good as Rick Bowness was doing in replacing Montgomery after the former coach was fired in December, his team was struggling in March. It wasn't scoring, and the questions about why were really starting to get annoying. We just saw with Vegas how a slump can get into a team's head, and you have to think that when Dallas was in that six-game losing streak, that mental issues were a concern.
But because of the pause, Bowness and his coaching staff had time to study all of that. They went out and analyzed other teams and came back with a plan. Activate the defensemen, ask for more from your forwards, and see what happens.
It was a roll of the dice, and it was probably only possible because the league shut down for four months, so that was nice timing, for sure.
Truth be told, though, it didn't work immediately. Dallas struggled in round-robin play and was 12 seconds away from going down 3-to-1 to the Flames in the first round. But Joe Pavelski flipped in a backhand with 11.9 seconds left in regulation, and Dallas went on to win Game 4 in overtime. That started a five-game winning streak where the Stars seemed to find their stride.

During that stretch, they overcame a 3-0 deficit to the Flames and a 2-0 deficit to the Avalanche. After that stretch, they came up with a huge overtime victory against Colorado in which rookie Joel Kiviranta had a historic hat trick.
If that doesn't scream destiny, what does?
But the funny thing about destiny is that sometimes it needs a little help.
Pavelski's tying goal against Calgary came a few minutes after the Stars had a goal disallowed - showing just how well this team deals with adversity. Kiviranta's hat trick came after the coaching staff juggled every line to accommodate an injury that took Andrew Cogliano out of the lineup. On the Kiviranta overtime goal, defensive defenseman Andrej Sekera was set up behind the net like Wayne Gretzky. On Benn's goal that started the comeback in Game 5 against Vegas, defensive defenseman Esa Lindell was set up behind the net like Wayne Gretzky.
They were only there because the pandemic forced the team to look at new ways of scoring, and the players then embraced a strategy forged in zoom meetings between coaches who were stretched across North America.
That's just too much coincidence, isn't it?

That said, the Stars have had to take advantage of the gifts. Young Vegas defenseman Zach Whitecloud chipped a puck into the stands in overtime Monday -- a break the Stars definitely appreciated. But Corey Perry finished a hustling shift by getting possession in the neutral zone and making a nice cross ice dump to the corner, and Andrew Cogliano then created drama for Whitecloud by racing in for the puck.
The Stars got some luck, but they also forced the play.
That happened throughout the playoffs. No, they weren't always the best team. Yes, they had to get amazing goaltending. Sure, you can criticize the analytics and say they shouldn't have won.
But, I got to tell you, it's really tough to criticize a team when you take a conference final in five games. That says they earned everything they got.
Going back to '78 in the Silverdome, the Traverse City Trojans had fourth-and-goal at the one-yard line with the score 14-14 and just under three minutes remaining. Ooley, trusting his gut, decided to go for it instead of kick the field goal. We scored the touchdown and then our kicker ran onto the field for the PAT.
He missed it.

I'll never forget feeling that Jim Ooley knew something that we didn't.
Yes, we may have been dumb enough to not understand the pressure, but we were also pretty smart, too.
Just like this year's Stars. They know the pressure, but they don't let it interfere with the goal of living each game shift by shift. They get some help from the hockey gods, but they also earn a big chunk of that karma.
Team of Destiny sounds pretty good.
Of course, they still have another step to go.
And if anyone knows that, it's these guys.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.