Some Thoughts on Patrick Roy, the Mavericks, and What Has Made This Year's Dallas Stars Team Different, So Far

Let's go down a little rabbit hole

Roope Hintz and Miro Heiskanen at the Stars’ Hall of Fame Induction Gala

We’re a quarter of the way into Glen Gulutzan’s return, and the Stars have one more point than they did last year at this same mark, which is to say they’re 4th in the entire league right now.

Matt Duchene and Nils Lundkvist have played only four of those games, while Jamie Benn just played his first. The underlying numbers aren’t a classic masterpiece, but after a 3-3-0 start, the Stars are finally starting to execute Gulutzan’s system with something like consistency, and it’s resulted in a remarkable run of 9-2-3 over their last 14 games.

Miro Heiskanen is playing like one of the best defensemen in the league, and Mikko Rantanen is tied for 5th in the NHL in scoring. The Stars have managed a very good start and a stronger defensive structure than last year, while an outstanding power play has more than covered up for some other warts. They’re functionally dangerous, and that’s a perfectly decent way to get through a long, dense regular season schedule.

But after a very intense end to the Islanders game the other night, I’ve started to take stock of what this team really is. Because Gulutzan has said that he believes the 20-game mark is when teams really start to show who they are, and who they’re going to be. So while it’s nice to have a cushion to work with, there’s a lot more pudding to come in which proof will need to be found.

I got derailed this morning before heading to practice when reading Tim MacMahon’s incredible piece on Mark Cuban, Nico Harrison, and all of the drama and intrigue that have been going on around the Mavericks ever since Cuban completed the sale to the Adelson family.

When you read through that account, it makes a whole lot of sense of the past nine months and more. Here you have Cuban, who thought he could go from a particularly “involved” owner to a less financially invested CEO based on, I guess, vibes? And now, it appears, he’s doing his best to wrest whatever control he can back from the recently fired Harrison—by getting back into the circle of trust of the very same family that pushed him out to begin with.