Heika: At dawn of new season, time to ponder great things for these Stars

As the Dallas Stars get ready to start the regular season Thursday against Arizona, there is no better time for fans to ask: Why not us?
It's a ritual in this sport, which might produce the most playoff upsets of any North American league, and it's especially appropriate after expansion Vegas went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final last season. So let's dissect the happenings of this franchise and ponder what they mean in a good way.

What if … three coaches in three seasons is exactly what the Stars need?

On the surface, jumping from Lindy Ruff's risky system to Ken Hitchcock's conservative ways to a rookie head coach in Jim Montgomery doesn't seem like the best strategy to build an identity, but what if it sets the Stars up to become a team that fits perfectly in the new NHL?
In retrospect, Ruff's aggressive offensive style helped hone the skills of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and John Klingberg. Each is among the leading scorers at their respective positions over recent seasons, with Benn second among wingers in the past five seasons (403 points in 404 games), Seguin third among centers in the past five seasons (384 points in 387 games) and Klingberg fifth among defensemen since he joined the NHL in 2014 (214 points in 303 games).
This team does have talent at the top.
MEET THE TEAM: [From Seguin to Smith, get to know your 2018-19 Stars with a complete roster break down]
In retrospect, Hitchcock and his assistant coaches made Seguin and Klingberg better defensive players last season. They not only taught the duo what needed to be done, they showed them how. As a result, Seguin found a way to be plus-12 and Klingberg plus-10 in a difficult season. Both said they felt their all-around game improved significantly, and both said they developed a hunger to be on the ice against the other team's best players.
That's important. That's what good teams have. And, it appears that's what the Stars have going forward.
Montgomery preaches a way of hockey that is relentless, that requires skill, but also requires smart reads. The Stars might be more ready to embrace that philosophy because of what players have learned from the previous two coaches.

What if … the younger players are ready to take a bigger role?

The Stars have been criticized for their drafting results and their lack of young impact players, but that could change this year. Through natural maturity and a nice run in the AHL playoffs, the Stars now have a roster that includes homegrown talent that could make an impact.
Roope Hintz, 21, and Jason Dickinson, 23, will be on the opening night roster and will likely be important depth players. Julius Honka, 22, and Miro Heiskanen, 19, have a chance to hold down a regular spot on defense. And players like Esa Lindell, 24, Radek Faksa, 24, Devin Shore, 24, and Valeri Nichushkin, 23, should become key core players who have to be counted on to play significant roles.
In theory, they should be ready. Lindell was second on the team in time on ice last season, Faksa was seventh in voting for the Selke, Heiskanen was the third overall pick in 2017 and is candidate for Rookie of the Year, and Nichushkin has a lot to prove after spending two seasons in the KHL.
If ever the young players were going to make an impact on the roster, now is the time.

What if … the goaltending really is fixed?

Kari Lehtonen did a lot of good things in his time with the Stars and dealt with a lot of challenges because of the way the team played hockey. However, Dallas was 25th in goals against average over the past five seasons and that was while paying the most money in the NHL to its goaltenders.
This season, the net seems to make a lot more sense. Ben Bishop is in the second year of a six-year contract that averages $4.9 million and Anton Khudobin has come in as a backup at $2.5 million. Meanwhile, the team has three young goalies in the minors in Landon Bow, Colton Point and Philippe Desrosiers and a first round pick still in college in Jake Oettinger.
The look right now is much more like the old-school Stars, who produced Roman Turek, Marty Turco, Manny Fernandez, Mike Smith and Dan Ellis in a seeming assembly line of young goalies.
Of course, this only works if the NHL goalies help this team win now, but it looks on paper like that could happen. Ben Bishop has been fantastic in the preseason and looks plugged in at age 31, and Khudobin offers a better alternative at backup if Bishop should get hurt.
This also works on paper better because both Bishop and Khudobin are noted puck handlers, and Montgomery is going to seek a strong relationship between goalies, defensemen and forwards in getting the puck out of the defensive end quickly. There should be little variation from game to game on style of play no matter who is in net.

What if … the hockey fates have handed the Stars a winning hand?

Look, this still is a revamped roster projected to be a bubble team with a head coach who has never been behind the bench for a regular season NHL game. They ain't anybody's upset darlings right now.
But they do have some odd scheduling quirks that could really help. The Stars play seven of the first nine games at home. They play 15 of the first 23 games against Eastern Conference teams. Montgomery said Tuesday that he knows it is going to take some time for the team to get comfortable with the new way of hockey, but they seem to have that time.
The Stars have an October with 17 days of practice where they can return from games and learn. Three two-day breaks, two three-day breaks. That's gold for a young coach.
And when they get up and running and seemingly are ready to play their best, that's when the Western Conference games come, that's when the Central Division games come. If we assume Nashville and Winnipeg are taking two playoff spots out of the Central, then Dallas, St. Louis, Minnesota, Colorado and Chicago are fighting for two or three of those spots (depending on how the Pacific Division performs). That means the head-to-heads among those five teams are huge.
The Stars have a stretch where they play six of those games over a three-week span in February and March. Dallas finishes with Chicago and Minnesota on the final two days of the season. In a league where one or two points means the difference between making the playoffs and missing, the Stars should have the opportunity to be at their best when the games are most important.
Of course, that's all just positive conjecture.
But on the eve of opening night, why not settle in for a nice dream or two.
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 Twitter @MikeHeika.