Silver linings on the silver screen: How sports cinema can provide boost to Stars

Shane Falco has a word of advice for your Dallas Stars.

“Quicksand.”

The fictional quarterback of the fictional Washington Sentinels has some very real advice to offer up in the movie The Replacements. Asked by coach Jimmy McGinty what scares his players, Falco responds with “quicksand.”

“You’re playing, and you think everything is going fine,” Falco tells his teammates. “Then one thing goes wrong. And then another. And another. You try to fight back, but the harder you fight, the deeper you sink. Until you can’t move…you can’t breathe…because you’re in over your head. Like quicksand.”

We love sports movies because they put athletes in the most dire of situations and then typically allow them to escape with victory. Hey, the story gets a lot better when you’re going against unbelievable odds. So maybe that’s how you need to look at the current mess the lads in Victory Green find themselves in. Sure, they have lost seven games in a row (0-5-2). Sure, they are playing their worst hockey of the year. Sure, they have one of the toughest First Round matchups in recent NHL history.

But that could make the story so much better.

The great thing about the 2024-25 Stars is, at their core, they are not this team. They have played great hockey throughout the season, including a couple of stretches where they were arguably the best team in the league. Just think back a couple of months when every expert was picking Dallas as the favorite to win the Cup. Think back to when they had some of the hottest hands in hockey.

And while you’re thinking, remember that it wasn’t easy. Tyler Seguin had hip surgery in December and that broke up the best 5-on-5 line in the league. Matt Duchene, who has had his share of hard knocks in his career, lost both Seguin and Mason Marchment (to a fractured orbital bone) in a span of a month. So, naturally, all he has done is lead the team in scoring and make everyone around him better.

That’s important.

The 34-year-old, who almost doubled his career playoff games in his first season with the Stars, knows the opportunity that he has. He understands the weight of all of this, and he seems to embrace it. If there is a player on this roster who might get lost in the mental quicksand that is sports, it’s Duchene. But he has worked hard to face his fears and live with them, just like Falco and The Replacements.

Other players can also look to sports movies for inspiration. Jake Oettinger loves golf, so maybe he could watch The Legend of Bagger Vance and see Rannulph Junuh start to understand all of the machinations it takes to put a little ball in a little hole better than the man next to you.

“Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing,” Vance says. “Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned...something that's got to be remembered…Over time, the world can rob us of that swing…It gets buried inside us under all our woulda’s and coulda’s and shoulda’s.”

Those are words of wisdom for many of the Stars right now.

How about Jamie Benn? Maybe he’s Jake Taylor from Major League or Crash Davis from Bull Durham. Maybe he’s there to help lead the younger players, and in so doing, make his own dreams come true. Maybe Seguin is Dean Youngblood after his trip back to the farm. Maybe he returns a smarter man for the biggest games of the year.

Maybe they all need a pep talk from Billy Heywood, who tells his players in Little Big League: “Maybe the problem is you forgot how much fun this is. You’re major leaguers. I mean, you’re on baseball cards. What could be better? … Don’t you understand? You guys get to play baseball every day. You get to go to Yankee Stadium, play in the same outfield as Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. You get to go to Fenway Park, step in the same batter’s box as Ted Williams.”

Clearly, those inside the dressing room know all of this stuff, but sports movies can remind us of what is good in the world, what is possible in the world. We all love an underdog; and while the 106-point Dallas Stars don’t exactly fit the bill in that category, they do have their backs to the wall right now. It’s like Hoosiers or Remember the Titans. This is a talented bunch that needs to once again find that place where the talent flows naturally.

One of my all-time favorite sports scenes comes from A League of Their Own. Manager Jimmy Dugan is telling Dottie Hinson to not quit and comes up with this gem when Dottie says, “It just got too hard.”

“It’s supposed to be hard,” Dugan said with commitment in his eyes. “If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.”

Words to ponder at a time like this, eh?

Because it would be so much better if the story came true in real life.

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.