Dallas Stars: 08/09 Season Threatens to Burn Out Early

The marketing slogan for the Dallas Stars’ 2008/2009 seasons was something like: Our Team. Our Time.

Even though it’s a fairly tired sports cliché, you can forgive the marketing knobs within the organization for trotting out an old chestnut—after all, they were trying to peddle the necessary optimism to sell more tickets, but you have to wonder if you can say the same for the on-ice side of the team.

Let’s immediately address—and clear away—the obvious and mostly valid, excuses for the Stars struggles this season.

Injuries

Can any team claim a better excuse than losing their best defenseman and their team captain for the entire season?

Hardly.

With the loss of Sergei Zubov and Brenden Morrow you have a legitimate alibi for a less than stellar season.

Add to this, the loss of Alternate Captain, Brad Richards and center, Toby Petersen, and you effectively have yourself a potential “full pardon” for the sins of 2008/2009.

The Sean Avery Syndrome

The introduction of a locker room poison early in the season seems to have sealed the fate of mediocrity for the Stars.

Heck, it could happen to any club!

A team that does not play for each other has less chance for success than a 300 lbs. sprinter.

One can debate the actual value of Sean Avery as a hockey player, but no one can deny that he was never a bona-fide member of the Dallas Stars.

Players distracted by locker room turmoil more than likely find it tough to focus—as seemed to be the case with Marty Turco.

Few know for a fact, but the whole Avery ordeal seemed to bother Turco the most.

Don’t believe me?

The Stars won nine of 22 games with Avery on the team and then rattled off six wins out seven games as soon as Avery was gone. Much of this had to do with decidedly better play from Mr. Turco.

Coincidence?

I doubt it.

Lack of a powerful back up for Marty Turco

With Mike Smith driving Marty like an Iditarod husky, the Stars enjoyed a wonderful confluence that led to quite a few wins in the 2007/2008 seasons.

Without a feisty back up to keep Marty on his toes—and to provide a solid alternative when he needed a little rest from the grind—Marty seems to have fluctuated in and out of his usual stellar play.

Having one goaltender carry the load for an entire season is can be troublesome as the season wears on, especially when the team is in a vicious scrum for the last playoff spot in the conference.

There are other excuses one could make for the performance of the Stars this season: the conspicuous absence of Stu Barnes after his inevitable retirement for instance, but let’s look at some of the less obvious issues:

After decades trying to ride the Modano bus to glory—and one actually successful trip—the Stars organization and fans included, continue to saddle their hopes on the NHL’s original pretty-boy.

Management made a yeoman’s effort to get a younger skilled player when they sealed the Richards deal, but fell short in the off-season picking up Avery, a player that, good or bad, they didn’t need, not because of his personality, but because that element of their play was already covered and, at the very least, not the problem.

Admittedly, there wasn’t a lot to be picked up in the 2008 off-season, but the effort was dismal and misguided.

This is not to say that failure is a forgone conclusion for the Stars this year.

As they say, “Anything can happen.”

Still, with Dallas’ injuries, the sheer might of Detroit, the talent of San Jose and current momentum of Vancouver; you have to be realistically prepared for the worst.

When you live in the city of Dallas, you quickly learn that the hockey fans here are convinced that Mike Modano is one step below Zetterberg, Crosby, Gretzky or Lemieux.

“Ah, but he’s been great for all those years,” you say.

Let’s look at the stats of an old warrior named Mark Recchi: There are few hockey fans who would tell you that Mark was as good a player as the beloved Mike Modano, but take a look at the stats:

• Mike has perched upon the golden pedestal of one organization his whole career, whilst Mark has become the kickball of the league, getting tossed over to new teams regularly and never getting a fraction of the praise, yet their numbers are very similar.

Why the double standard?

Perhaps it is Modano’s winning smile, because it sure isn’t his toughness in front of the net or maybe it’s his speedy bursts of fluid skating, because it sure ain’t his ability to hold on to the puck when another player puts the body on him.

Is Recchi the Rodney Dangerfield of hockey?

No, but he certainly doesn’t get the respect the mighty Mo gets.

Never mind that.

It’s been well established that Mike Modano is above criticism.

He skates from accountability easier than he skates to his own bench, but the real issue here is: How long do the Stars plan to invest their money in the Bank of Mo?

Who takes over for the anointed one once he’s gone?

These are questions no one in the Stars organization wants to answer.

This is understandable, because it may very well mean returning to the ranks of the mediocre to obtain higher draft picks.

Maybe they are thinking about it after all…