Dallas Stars: A Paean To Playoff Hockey
By Ben Davila
The Dallas Stars are clawing their way through the conference semifinals. It’s a reminder of why the NHL playoffs are the best tournament in all of sports.
For fans of the Dallas Stars, the last few weeks have provided a number of exquisite memories of the ups and downs of an honest-to-goodness playoff run. For a fan base starved for playoff action, it became easy to forget that as the Stars advance, each series provides a chapter-laden novel full of story lines, heroes, villains, and vague injury reports.
The cool thing about playoff hockey is that there is a code. It is unwritten, but the players follow it like their lives depend on it. The level of Give-A-Damn is off the charts and jumps from our HD TV screens. As it’s still considered part of the “Big Four” of major North American sports, playoff hockey represents something pure in an increasingly jaded professional sports landscape.
Nowhere has this been more apparent than during the Dallas Stars’ conference semifinal series against the St. Louis Blues.
The Dallas Stars want to play an up-and-down style that plays to their offensive strengths. The Blues are eerily reminiscent of the 1999 Stars’ Stanley Cup Championship team. But then again, maybe it’s not so eerie when you stop to consider the man who stands behind the Blues’ bench.
The two teams couldn’t be more diametrically opposed, but that is what makes this series such a sight–and delight–to behold. Save for the Game 3 bludgeoning the Dallas Stars endured, the team that has managed to play their brand of hockey at the most opportune time has been the one to prevail. It could be argued that Dallas should have won Game 2, or that St. Louis should have won Game 4, but there’s a reason this thing is tied going to Game 5 today in Dallas.
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The reason for the deadlock was a herculean Dallas Stars’ effort on Thursday night in St. Louis. Game 4 was so transcendent, so prototypical it it’s scope, so telling in how these two teams are trying to force their will upon one another. It’ll be a shame when it’s said and done. The winner of this series may well be the team that goes on to hoist the Stanley Cup in June.
To that end, let us rejoice in the contrasting styles these two teams represent. In the spirit of old-school heavyweight boxing, The Dallas Stars are Muhammad Ali; dancing like butterflies, stinging like bees. The Blues are Joe Frazier, coming straight down Broadway and punishing the body. It makes for some absolutely compelling theater.
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This is what playoff hockey is all about. The Dallas Stars and the St. Louis Blues are engaged in a series that is bordering on classic status. It has now come down to a best-of-three that is sure to rattle the nerves of two proud teams and fan bases. May the best team win. The ultimate prize may await.