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Glennie was expected to go to a team later in the draft, early after the top 10 (11 or so) – so everyone including myself was surprised at the Stars when they said his name.  Especially considering Paajarvi-Svensson had slid down and was still available.  I personally expected for them to pick up Ryan Ellis at the end of the night.  I like many other Stars fans that followed the draft, was curious to know why.   While we can never know for sure until more press releases come out after the draft and when he’s put into the Dallas system later in his career, it was actually relatively clear why the chose Glennie.  Though the interviews were short, the general theme was that they chose him for his personality and winning attitude that made him the Dallas choice.  While he is less skilled than some of the other’s available, it can be assumed by this that they thought his persona to skill ratio was much more suitable than the other’s.

I expect that Neiuwendyk is building a team that will play for one another around other players like Morrow, Ott, Robidas, Daley, Modano, Lehtinen and Zubov.   At the end of the day a GM can only look at three things really.

1. The state of the league – as in how the game is being played per conference, what is winning games right now.
2. Their past experiences – in this case as a player Joe knew what a Stanley cup team was made of.  He won cups with more than one team which makes it easier to go back and see not how they were different but what made them the same.  The reason Avery didn’t work is because he played for himself and his own gain – this is a good metaphor for the difference between a losing and winning team.  You can be the most skilled player in the world but unless you really want to win for the guy next to you – you aren’t going to win a cup.  While I am generally unbias as to the general existence of Alexander Ovechkin, I do think that he has the skill to play like he does, but wouldn’t be nearly as successful if he didn’t show such a love for the game and more so for his team – just watch him celebrate when his teammate score even when it doesn’t offer up any points for him.
3. The state of the team – this means in comparison to what you want from the team.  Which generally just goes back to number 2.  What you want from a team is based on what he had as a player.  I think that this year was quite a demoralizing chain of events and with rumors of Hicks faltering as an owner and that while Dallas is seen as one of the more profitable teams int he league (rumor has it that the Stars are in debt).  I think chemistry and outlooks can change after such a season, especially when a team like the Stars are the center stage.  You expect to win as a Star, it can be devastating if you aren’t used to losing.

At the end of the day I think the Stars want to keep moving toward what Tippett promised when he took the reigns – a more offensive outlook.  Which is why the picked up Crawford along side his drill instructor mentallity to get more out of the players on the roster and the rookies coming into the system.  On the other hand I think they want to build into what I previously mentioned.  A team that plays to win and plays to win for each other just as much as they do for themselves.  You can just watch those old Stars videos from the 99 year and see how much some of them enjoyed each other’s company and success (just see how Hull and Modano interact).

It was that 1999 season that really made the Stars into the organization it is right now.

That said, it is fairly simple to see why they chose the player – though I don’t know him.  At least judging by the mentallity shown after the pick was chosen and announced.  Only time will really tell, however – whether or not the decision to take persona over skill in an entry draft is really a good direction to go, at least in this case.

Why is it relevant?  Let’s hope it’s not.

His Dallas home is up for sale and that means one of a few things.  The harshest is that he’s being traded and losing his spot on the Stars roster.  The other is that he’s retiring.  And the least harsh is that he’s simply moving.  We can assume it’s one of the first two, I for one hope it’s retirement, it would be a terrible move by Joe to get rid of him when he’s so close to retiring with a Stars jersey on.

There are a lot to pick from.  Let’s go through that long list first, shall we?

• Morrow: He missed a majority of the season with his knee injury, it will be fun to see the Captain back n the ice next season fully recovered and ready to lead the team again.
• Richards: Like Morrow he was out for most of the season with a broken wrist.  Then upon returning broke his opposite hand.  I’m anxious to see how he plays upon his return.
• Ott: He grew into something more than “Ott the Pepper Pot” this season as he stepped up to fill the void of Brendan Morrow on the Ribeiro line.  The question is, will he fall to the back burner again and be the “fighter” or will they let him stay on the top 2 lines and be the scorer he’s proven himself to be.  I think it’s more a question of will Crawford let him more so than what he really prefers.  If they force him into his role as the “Hi, I fight” guy then I don’t think he’ll be with the Stars for longer than a season or two.  Reason being, people will want him to boost their team’s scoring and if he’s forced into the back checking lines again then I doubt he’ll put up much of a fight (no pun intended).
• Neal: The kid exploded out of the gate, but with a ton of Draft features written by collumnists lately – it’s clear that there are plenty of failed starters.  Your sophmore season is easily the hardest.  You have nothing to lose your first season.  The second season is where the pressure replaces the nervous jitters.  Can the “Real Deal” keep that clever title in 09-10?
• Vishnevsky: He’s young, he got his first chance near the end of the season to show he’s ready for the NHL.  At first I wasn’t impressed but in his second showing he really stepped it up and showed his immaculate skating abilities and the undeniable offensive flair he has for a defenseman.  Should we see him return to the NHL at the beginning of 09-10, he will be a player I want to watch in the looming shadow of Zubov’s retirement.
• Niskanen: He was great his rookie year but most of his sophmore year was filled with gooey slumpiness.  That is until the last quarter of the season where his +/- improved dramatically and the offensive side that he was supposed to have started to show.   Sydor as his linemate really gave him the confidence he needed to become good again, lets hope at some point he learns to keep that work ethic up without the veteran defensemen yelling at him on the bench after every shift.
• Eriksson: To call Loui’s 08-09 season a breakthrough would be a gigantic understatement.  He stayed in the goal race for the entire season it seems as he came out of it with 36.  The question really is, was it a fluke?  It’s hard to say yes considering he did it on a team that struggled all year long with any problem you can think of, including losing his centerman to a broken wrist.  But, alas – I have a twinge of doubt when I ask myself whether or not I think he’ll perform just as good if not better than he did this year.
• Brunnstrom: Coming off of a rookie year that was filled with press and a new rink size there is always the question of whether or not he lived up to the hype.  In one word, “No.”  But that’s not to say he didn’t start to show signs of why he was such a highly talked about free agent late bloomer.  His defensive side is why he saw so little ice time – and yet he still managed to score plenty of goals in said time restraints.  Then near the end of the year his defensive game had improved ten fold, leaving the Stars fan’s appetites wet to see if he can continue on that road this coming season.

As I sit here falling asleep in my chair, my mind always goes back to the glimmer of excellence that I recall seeing from the young defensemen known as “Vishy”.  Vishnevsky was supposed to make his NHL debut about halfway through the season but only saw the light of the AAC arena closer to the end.  While he suffered a bit at the beginning in the defensive zone, he flourished heavily on the offensive blue line.  I personally can’t think of any other man in a Stars jersey I am hoping to see on the ice more this coming season than him.

The only thing I am more anxious to see is who leaves the team and who joins in the off-season.  See you at the Draft on Versus this Friday, I suppose.

Hmm, they fired Tippett didn’t they?  Quite right.

Harsh – yes.  Necessary?  Probably.

Fact of the matter is – the Stars haven’t won a cup since 99 at which point Ken Hitchcock was the coach.  The obvious fact here is that Tippett failed to win one for Dallas.  In any league whether it be the NHL, NBA, NFL, etc.  When your players are getting paid millions to play the game and the coaches are getting paid equally ludicrous amounts of money to guide those players to victory, there is a short window for you to do well or get fired.  It’s the way it is.  I think the hockey fans see themselves as a fan of a more ethical sport than those who are watching their sport get molested by the use of steroids and even bigger pay checks.  And to some extent you are right.  Hockey is one of the only “mainstream” sports that has kept a good amount of it’s integrity as it tries to force it’s way into the hearts of the American sports fan.

But at the same time, it’s naive to think that a team is going to keep a coach after 6 seasons behind the bench despite the lack of the “big prize” to show for their time and effort.  Nor should they.  Teams have franchise players who can stay with the team for their entire career based on nothing more than their face (see Mike Modano).  Coaches don’t have that luxury, many times they are held responsible for the team’s conduct as a whole regardless of whether that weight is deserved.  Whether it’s deserved or not they are the leader of that team and under their leadership they didn’t get to the ultimate goal.  In fact, under Tippett’s command they rarely made it past the first round.   Considering the talent on the team despite teh salary cap era the team should be in the WCF’s every other year if not the SCF.

But enough of Tippett’s firing, what about that hiring?

Well, they couldn’t go without a head coach, that’s for sure.  But who’s to say hiring Marc Crawford is going to be better than the absence?  Wait, wait, wait.  Am I one of those avid haters of the Crawford legacy (or lack there of)?  Not at all.  In fact I have managed to develop (force) high hopes for the new head coach.  He won a cup in 96 with the Avalanche.  Decided to mimic Dave Tippet’s patented “Lose in the first round everytime we make the playoffs” strategy with the Canucks then moved onto Los Angeles to tutor a young decaying (oxymoron) Kings team that saw two terrible seasons under Marky C.

The question coming into the hiring wasn’t, “WHYY!?” – it was “Why?” — At least that was my question as an objective fan.  Fact of the matter is – hundreds of millions of dollars are riding heavily on managers of the franchise making good decisions.  Everyone knows a good decision takes planning and reason.  We can all rest assured that there is atleast one good reason for the move.  This of course brings us to the new GM – former Stars forward Joe Neiuwendyk.  He won the only Dallas cup with the Stars in 99 before being traded a bit later.  Now he’s back as the General Manager – shaking things up as one might expect a young first timer GM to do under the rule of Tom Hicks who is notorious for his “Whatever…” attitude to the teams he owns.  Why hire a GM if you have to generally manage for yourself, right?

What were the new GM’s motives?  Nobody can really know for sure – as with most press coverage the interviews are all filled with side stepping generalized answers that you will hear one hundred times until the Coach either fails or succeeds – then you will get the real reason – or the excuse I guess, depending on which side of the spectrum the outcome lays at the end of the next two or so seasons.  All we can do is guess – and I love my opinions more than I love sleeping pills, so sit back and relax.

First – go to the Dallas Stars website and watch the rehash videos of the 99 Stanley Cup playoffs they posted during the playoffs (that we missed out on) as a celebration for the 10 year anniversary (and ugly reminder) of the only cup we’ve ever won.  Watch the style of play – see the skills and assets used.  Despite a substantially larger focus on defense that was prominent back then compared to the lack of such in today’s game, the team played with speed and puck possession.  Sound like any other teams we know of now (e.g. Penguins, Red Wings, Hawks)?  I think Joe wants to repeat that success and hopefully if he’s smart – tweak that successful set up to fit today’s altered game even more.  That starts with two things.  Skilled players who want to win and a coach who knows how to make the players play to their potential every night.  Ken Hitchcock could do that and there’s no denying the skill that players like Hull, Lehtinen, Modano, Zubov and Neiuwendyk brought to the table in their primes.  The question was – what does a coach need to get the players that the Stars have on staff to play like everyone knows they can/could?  Well Tippett is a great coach – but many consider him soft.  Essentially he was nice enough to take all of the blame and not hold players accountable until they hit the fifth game of a losing streak or something equally depressing.  Well, if they need a drill instructor who is going to tell them they are being an lazy tool who is over-payed then I can only imagine that Crawford is well equipped to handle such a task.  As such I think that edge that Ken Hitchcock had might be found in Crawford if he can shut his mouth long enough not to get into fights with other team’s coaches.

Either way, I don’t think the Stars organization is going to let him run their reputation for “class” into the ground after the Avery fiasco.  That fact combined with the idea that perhaps a couple years as a broadcaster has humbled Marc Crawford and made him a better coach for it could pan out well.  I hope it does for the sake of an expansion team in a terrible economy that is owned by a owner who is slowly falling deeper into debt.   And of course for the sake of my free time – of which I have an abundance.

At the end of the day, what do I think about the changes?  I think Neiuwendyk is going to be as good a GM as anyone else we could have hired despite resume differences.  I think it was the right move to split up the Co-GM tandum of Hull/Jackson and get them into more comfortable roles in the organization regardless of who they chose to replace them.  I have my many doubts about Crawford but, I think firing Tippett was the right thing to do.  And at the end of the day, it’s an interesting situation we Stars fans find ourselves in these days and will only get more interesting with the Draft coming up on Friday (Picking 8th) allowing for us to finally try to put together just what Joe’s trying to build here in Dallas through the use of draft picks and trades.

Yeah, this off-season is going to be bumpy.  But, you’re lying to yourself if you say you aren’t entertained.

Stay tuned for my Draft blog/s as well as discussing the financial situation of the Dallas Stars in the coming week!