Stars/AVS Again - will it be close to what was the very best of times?

Dallas and Colorado meet again in the postseason, and it could be great - but the bar for these two was set in 1999 & 2000 - and I called all of it. What's different?

Dallas’ Sergei Zubov celebrates a goal in the 1999 WCF

We’re going again - Stars - Avs. What’s gonna happen? How’s the series gonna be? How should we prepare ourselves to watch? And then - how should we watch?

First - remember this one from Ralph e boy - when you win a playoff game - you think you’ll win it all - when you lose a playoff game - you think you’ll never win another one. So remember that.

Also - the Stanley Cup playoffs aren’t for everyone. Lots of people can’t handle the emotional swings. If that’s you - if you don’t have the stomach for it - then get off this train now because we can’t use you. You have to be locked in and understand that things ebb - and things flow.

I’m scrolling through Twitter last night, and I see a post from Victory Sports, the Dallas Stars streaming service, featuring Daryl Reaugh and Josh Bogorad. Razor is asking him about his favorite playoff moments he’s called for the Stars.

Josh says the 2019 OT win over Nashville - and interestingly enough - I called that game for Westwood One. The other one was the series win over Vegas last year - which I watched on TV - ha.

This isn’t a contest - but I win. I’m Quint and he’s Brodie on this one.

And while I could end the discussion with June 19, 1999 in Buffalo, or maybe the 2008 classic Game 6 with San Jose, or any number of Stars/Oilers post-season clashes, I’m gonna bury my good friend Josh with two epic 7-game Western Conference Finals series.

Dallas v Colorado WCF 1999 & Dallas v Colorado 2000.

It didn’t get and hasn’t got any better than this for Stars fans.

Jamie Langenbrunner in tight on Patrick Roy

These series were legendary and stand the test of time; two powerhouse teams featuring more than a handful of Hall-of-Famers on each roster, with the highest stakes possible, at the end of the most physically brutal era in hockey.

The names read like a who’s who of the hockey world of the time - Mike Modano, Brett Hull, Joe Nieuwendyk, Sergei Zubov, Jere Lehtinen, Derian Hatcher, Ed Belfour, and more for the Stars -

Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Milan Hejduk, Chris Drury, Claude Lemieux, Adam Foote, Patrick Roy. The difference in that series - probably Zubov and the Stars De. The next year, Colorado would bring in Ray Borque, and that got them closer in 2000, and got them the Cup in 2001.

You gotta have a guy back there. This year - they have Makar - the Stars don’t have Miro. That might could tip it right there.

The games took place in two dilapidated, humid and stuffy barns - McNichols Arena in Denver, and Dallas’ fabled Reunion Arena, in front of newly minted fan-bases finding themselves in all of this.

The Avalanche relocated from Quebec City in 1995, and won the Cup the following spring.

Dallas left Minnesota in 1993, and, in the pre-salary cap era, had clawed their way into the discussion. The Detroit Red Wings beat the Stars in the 1998 WCF. Dallas signed Brett Hull and would get Joe Nieuwendyk back after getting injured in the first game of the playoffs in 98.

Those were the big 3 in the West in those days - Dallas, Colorado, and Detroit - and the trick was to not play both of them in the playoffs. There’s only one way to do that of course - get the One Seed.

Dallas did that in both 1999 and 2000.

They would get to avoid one or the other. Turns out they would miss Detroit, as the Avalanche got past them. It would be Colorado in both 1999 and 2000.

Two heavyweights. A trip to the Stanley Cup Final on the line. Two years in a row. Both series go 7.

And I was right in the middle of it.