Ken Hitchcock is a proponent of the transition game.
And by that, he doesn't mean Jere Lehtinen causing a turnover at the Stars' blue line, allowing Sergei Zubov to outlet to a speeding Mike Modano.
He's talking about the transition of personnel, that diabolically tricky problem of remaining in the elite through the passing of years.
|  | | Can Brett Hull score more than 24 goals for Dallas? |
"Bob (Gainey) has done an excellent job of taking this team from old to youthful," insists the affable Dallas coach, on a speaker phone from his office at the team's training facility. "He's been able to do this through his experience. You have to make changes, otherwise you get left behind.
"If you crash and burn, it takes a long time to get back to where you once were."
Did he say youthful?
For a lot of people, the Stars' six-game ouster by New Jersey in last year's Stanley Cup finale signaled the end of their feasible assaults on hockey's Mt. Olympus. They appeared suddenly old and used-up by the quicker, more tenacious Devils. The Stars seemed uncharacteristically out of answers, and save the other-world goaltending of Ed Belfour, would've succumbed far sooner in the postseason.
The perception is that while the Stars remain a good team, their window of opportunity to challenge for a second Stanley Cup championship has gotten smaller.
"Oh, quite the contrary," Hitchcock interjects brightly. "Personally, I think it's getting bigger."
The 'D' in Big D, they're convinced, doesn't stand for Done. In fact, they're convinced they'll be knocking on New Jersey's door demanding the Cup back.
And there actually are good reasons to believe that isn't just a pipe dream.
"Last year, we introduced three younger players into our lineup on a regular basis," Hitchcock said. "This year, there'll be four more. Oh, sure, we'll have a lot of the same cast of characters again. But outside of Hull, who's 36, Muller, 34, and Nieuwendyk, 34, we have a lot of players just reaching the prime of their careers. And that's not luck, it's good planning.
"We've got a young defense. Not one player over 30. And with Hatcher, Zubov, Sydor and Matvichuk back there, I think everyone would agree it's a pretty strong core group."
There is, of course, a real art to staying on top in professional sports, of knowing when to let go of decorated warriors who've sacrificed for the common good and when to begin inserting a degree of developing talent. You can't tinker too much with a successful team but yet, there's a dangerous, often fatal, risk of letting it become stale when lacking the foresight to make gradual changes.
The Stars have kept the meat of their batting order stable through their contending and championship seasons, adding small pieces to the puzzle and hoping the contributions of those pieces grow along the way.
It is, as Hitchcock agrees, an extremely delicate balance.
So, in the past two seasons, oldies such as Guy Carbonneau, Brian Skrudland, Doug Lidster, Dave Reid, Benoit Hogue and Craig Ludwig have either retired or been cast off. They provided good, often marvelous, service to the organization. But business is business. And the business is all in remaining competitive -- with a chance to win the whole enchilada.
A quick check at the trade-offs over the past two seasons:
Roman Lyashenko, 21, for Carbonneau, 40, at center.
Brenden Morrow, 21, for Reid, 34, at left wing.
Richard Jackman, 24, for Shawn Chambers, 33, on defense
Blake Sloan, 24, for Skudland, 35, at center/right wing.
Brad Lukowich, 23, for Ludwig, 39, on defense.
This season, Jackman makes the jump from the IHL, Marty Turco takes over as the backup from the departed Manny Fernandez, while right winger Tyler Bouck from WHL Prince George (the 57th overall pick in '98) and Ryan Christie, from the Kalamazoo K-Wings, are set to start the season with the big club.
As it stands, Dallas likely will open the season with a collective age under the league average.
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We've held a lot of players out of exhibition games and training camp scrimmages. We've practiced very, very hard, but not for a long time. We've never practiced over an hour. We didn't want the players to put in any extra time on the ice. Do your work, get off. Everything is geared towards feeling ready, feeling good, on Oct. 5. ” |
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— Stars coach Ken Hitchcock |
Oh, there are concerns. At 35, Belfour is coming off two superb seasons. But how long can it last? And Nieuwendyk, at 34, has been plagued by injuries the past few years. Dallas needs him healthy to complement Modano as arguably the best 1-2 center punch in hockey.
Hitchcock points out, quite correctly, that the Stars were pretty fatigued by the time they faced the Devils in the spring. Not solely from the season just gone by, but by the Stanley Cup win of '98-99 and the run to the conference finals the previous spring.
What most people blamed on age, he blames on fatigue that would've stricken any team, no matter how young or how powerful.
"We'd played three straight years into June," he points out. "No other team had done that. We played 70 extra games during that time. That would take a toll on anyone.
"From Christmas on last year, we got the maximum effort from our players. We couldn't ask for any more. So when we got to the finals, there wasn't much left in the tank."
It's an understatement to say the summer break following the disappointing defeat was dearly welcome. And when the Stars opened training camp in early September, the emphasis remained on being fresh and re-energized when the puck is dropped for real.
"We've held a lot of players out of exhibition games and training camp scrimmages," Hitchcock said. "We've practiced very, very hard, but not for a long time. We've never practiced over an hour. We didn't want the players to put in any extra time on the ice.
"Do your work, get off. Everything is geared toward feeling ready, feeling good, on Oct. 5th. We've had some time to rest now and sort out what happened to us in that last series. I think there's a different feeling here now," Hitchcock vows. "A lot of energy, a lot of passion from everyone.
"Now it's time to play."
And probably play a long time. Say, into June for the fourth consecutive season.
Yes, this old lion still has a lot of bite, and enough new claws to go with it.
George Johnson covers the NHL for the Calgary Herald. His NHL National column appears every week during the season on ESPN.com.
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