Reminiscing with purpose: Drawing parallels, lessons from Stars of days past

I’ve been accused of being nostalgic with the Dallas Stars, and I think that’s a fair assessment.

After all, the late ‘90s were a lot of fun, and that team was pretty darn good. It was also filled with a cast of characters that had experienced some impressive life lessons. You could watch them go through their daily routine and see just how much they had picked up through the years. Bob Gainey assembled a team that had several former captains and seven players who had won the Stanley Cup. Six of the players from that team are now in the Hockey Hall of Fame. That was key, and it helped form a strong culture in the room.

One of the things I liked best about that team was it wanted the pressure. It wanted to be considered a favorite, it felt it was better than any team in the league. Remember, this was in the era when there was no salary cap, so Dallas, Detroit and Colorado were outspending everybody in the West. That set up some great rivalries, and those Stars loved that part of the game.

We’re kind of back at that place again, even with the current financial system. Winnipeg is playing fantastic hockey, Colorado is in the midst of its heyday. Vegas is right there every year, too. The fact the Stars had to plow through the Golden Knights and Avalanche in the first two rounds last season is proof of that, and also proof that the lads in Victory Green know what they’re up against. Sure, this team could very well play Colorado in the First Round, Winnipeg in the Second Round and then have Vegas waiting in the Conference Final if they can get there. But if that’s the path, it seems the dressing room is saying, “Let’s go.”

That’s not an easy place to get to, and it seems a look back at the past is a good guide to how these things happen.

The Stars in 1996-97 got a new head coach, won the division and lost in the First Round of the playoffs. The following season, they got to the Conference Final and lost to Detroit. And in 1998-99, they won it all. It was a process. There was scar tissue that had to be built, experiences that had to be lived, chemistry that had to be generated. It was a beautiful thing to watch.

This team is similar.

Let’s go all the way back to the Stanley Cup Final in the bubble in 2020. The image of captain Jamie Benn sitting at his locker in an empty room after a painful series-ending loss was a foundation. So was the performance of players like Miro Heiskanen on the ice, to younger players like Jason Robertson, Jake Oettinger and Thomas Harley, who were simply tagging along and soaking up the experience. It was important.

Since then, we have seen six rounds of playoffs in the past two seasons under Pete DeBoer and his coaching staff. That includes two trips to the Western Conference Final with some great memories and some bitter endings. That has helped make this team what it is. Wyatt Johnston was trained by a veteran wizard in Joe Pavelski, and that allowed him to stretch his legs even more this season after Pavelski retired. Harley was both nurtured and prodded to learn the intricacies of defending at the NHL level, and that was huge when he was basically pushed into the surrogate No. 1 spot during Heiskanen’s injury absence. That could also be huge in the playoffs.

They say that every team is different, because every player is different each and every season. Heck, just looking at the current roster, you’ve added Cody Ceci, Matt Dumba, Ilya Lybushkin and Lian Bichsel on the back end since the end of last year. That’s a huge shuffle. Up front, the team has added Mikael Granlund, Mavrik Bourque, Oskar Bäck and Colin Blackwell to the mix. Oh yeah, and there’s also the latest acquisition of Mikko Rantanen.

It truly is a process.

The old Stars were the same. By adding Ed Belfour, Brett Hull, Pat Verbeek and Dave Reid, that team was able to use some veterans hungry for their first Cup win to provide a relentless push. In the meantime, the core of the team still was built on draft picks who worked their way up in the organization. Mike Modano was 28 back then. Roope Hintz is 27 now. Jere Lehtinen, Derian Hatcher, Richard Matvichuk and Darryl Sydor were around 25. Same with Robertson, Heiskanen and Oettinger today. Jamie Langenbrunner was 23. Johnston is 21, while Harley is 23.

And honestly, if they play Colorado in the First Round, everyone is fine with that just like they were after drawing Vegas to open last year’s playoffs.

But an interesting part of this journey would be if the entire group got together and made a statement…if they used everything they have learned over the past few seasons and made themselves “the team to beat.” That’s what the old Stars would have done.

At least, that’s the way I remember it.

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.