A New Storm For The Cup Win!
The Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights conduct their business a little differently than most. What can other teams - including the Stars - take from this?
This one got my attention in ways many other Stanley Cup Final series have not.
I’ve never been a ‘by the book’ kind of guy. I don’t take anything at face value. I question everything - especially what we continue to do that we’ve always done even if we never get the results we want because that’s the way we’ve always done it.
We’re taught things and told things about the way it is and the way it always has to be. We don’t get on board with the status quo - we’re the ones with the problem.
This morning - I find myself in fine company.
The Carolina Hurricanes are Stanley Cup Champions again, and they’ve done it by breaking with some long-standing hockey protocols. Start here - with goalies. Their goalie, starting his third-ever playoff game shutout Vegas in their own building last night to secure the Cup.
Jake Oettinger? Our $ 8 million dollar a year puckstopper hasn’t had a playoff shutout in over three years. He has two - total - in 71 playoff appearances.
But I’m the one who doesn’t get it… I’m the one fans and media think has lost my marbles…
The Vegas Golden Knights were two wins away and they don’t give a rip what anyone thinks about how they operate. They signed a goalie nobody would touch and they almost got it done. They’ve been to three finals in nine seasons with three different goalies. Their backup this year was the guy who won it for them in 2023.
It’s encouraging for hockey that this was the Final we all got. We hear all the time about success leaving clues and that other teams will copy what created the latest champion. I sure as hell hope so.
I’m a member of the Dallas Stars Hall of Fame, but often here fans and others are confused when I’m critical of my team and some of the players on it - and some of the bonehead stuff I see from management.
You gotta understand something - I want us to win again - badly. I’m outside and I see things that you can’t always see when you’re in there and so I write about em.
I’m at my HOF induction last November in Dallas and many of my 1999 friends - guys who played on the Stars only Cup winning team to date that I spoke with that weekend relayed in one way or another that they like being the only Stars guys with rings. At times I felt like I was at a party with those dickheads from the 1972 Miami Dolphins who ‘pop the champagne cork’ when an undefeated team loses late in the season so that they remain the lone group with a perfect campaign.
I’m not like that. Not at all. Not even a little. I want to win soooo badly. But there are barriers here and I worry they’ll never get crossed.
There is a chorus of old thinking emanating from the hockey department, enjoined by the media, and sung loudly to the fan base, who learns the verses too well and eventually sings along with great gusto.
Carolina is singing a different tune. So is Vegas. Florida too.
The last three Stanley Cup wins have been piloted by GM’s with Ivy League educations.
Let that sink in.
None of them - under this archaic hockey man thinking and perpetual culture of dimness are awarded GM of the year. Those hockey guys must hate them. Hell - Carolina’s Eric Tulsky isn’t even a finalist this year.
That should tell you everything you need to know about where we are and the challenges of moving ahead in any meaningful way.
The Canes Cup win has a lot to say however, about where we should start to look and go for real answers and a chance for us to lift it again.
Cmon - let’s have another hard talk about what might be holding the Stars back.
