One of the most beautiful aspects of sports is how they revolve around moments. I begin with this reflection because what a night Wednesday night was for the Texas Rangers and their fans, many of whom also support the Dallas Stars. It was incredible to see the local baseball team climb the mountain and plant their flag as champions, ending a 12-year drought in the Metroplex after the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA title in 2011.
Sports are amazing in that way, where even witnessing another person witnessing something amazing can be moving. To be honest, I’m not a huge baseball fan and don’t have the same emotional attachment to the Rangers that many of you do, especially the older generation who has endured more hardship than others. For the Rangers, the wait for a championship was shared by the entire fan base: a lifetime. The currency, whether years or decades of life, varied, as did the weight of emotional baggage, but it was a lifetime wait all the same. And if you’re a Rangers fan of a certain age, roughly 17 or 18 years old or older, you remember the agonizing unifying factor of Game 6 in 2011.
That heinous mishap was a moment most fans would prefer to forget, if they haven’t already. Wednesday provided Rangers fans with a new moment, one filled with joy and elation. That journey is true sports at its finest.
I know you’re here for hockey talk, so let’s get started.
It was exactly one week ago in this space that the hot topic was Stars head coach Pete DeBoer juggling the lineup. DeBoer’s goal is to have a lineup where he can, ideally, roll all four lines but, at the very least, roll multiple lines. DeBoer made some changes because the lineup coming out of camp wasn’t cutting it. In terms of usage, he split up the second-most consistent line by taking Evgenii Dadonov off the right side of Jamie Benn and Wyatt Johnston. Mason Marchment was demoted to the fourth line after a slow start to the season.
Then, after the Stars suffered their first regulation loss of the season last Thursday in a game in which Marchment played well, DeBoer reassembled the entire team.
“When you reflect upon our start here, we’ve played seven games in probably three and a half weeks since the start of the season,” DeBoer said in a press conference on Monday. “So, it’s been a sluggish start.” I want to make sure I give combinations and power plays enough space, and that we’re not overreacting because we haven’t had the luxury of a lot of games or touches. Some of those guys are just getting back from injuries sustained during camp. I want to demonstrate some patience, which is why we returned to it.”
There’s an obvious caveat about the quality of competition in a week where the first two opponents were the Columbus Blue Jackets and Calgary Flames, but the results have been exactly what DeBoer could have hoped for. On Monday, the Stars’ top line scored 27 seconds into the game. Matt Duchene scored his first goal against the Blue Jackets in Dallas, and Dadonov scored the game-winning goal on assists from Benn and Johnston. The results were announced on Wednesday. Early in the second period, the Stars trailed the Flames 2-1.Each line scored a goal, and the Stars led the game 4-2 at the end of the period. The fourth line performed admirably in both games, even with Sam Steel filling in for Radek Faksa (upper-body injury) in Calgary.
“That’s what we want to get to,” DeBoer said earlier this week when asked about having multiple lines drive play. “That’s what Jim (Nill) has attempted to create here. I believe we saw last year, when the deepest team won (the Stanley Cup). This year, I believe we’re attempting to be one of those deep, deep teams. On Monday night, I noticed signs of it.
For the first time in a long time, I thought our fourth line looked effective and dangerous. Hopefully, we can maintain that four-line mentality.”
Moments consume us. Rangers fans today don’t remember when the team lost four straight games less than two months ago, or when they limped to the end of the regular season, losing three of their last four games. A World Series title, however, seemed unfathomable to fans at the time. It’s fine for fans to think that way, but executives, coaches, and players can’t get so sucked in, especially during difficult times, that they lose patience and forget that the season is a marathon.
