Tonight, the Stars will be reminded once again of their recent glory when the championship banner is unfurled and the players are introduced at Reunion Arena before the season opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins. When the opening puck finally drops, the Stars will begin the long, arduous task of defending their NHL title. Clearly, the Stars can't get on with the business of defending the title until the memories from last spring are filed away. That's a tough thing to do because everyone wants to talk about last year. You get more media attention, television, radio.
More fans loiter around at the rink.
That will make it harder. But somehow, we've got to put last year behind us and go play. In the 1990s, only one NHL team, the Detroit Red Wings, and five professional sports franchises overall, have repeated as champions. Yet Hitchcock figures the task of repeating this season will be much more mentally taxing. To counteract that, Hitchcock said he has spoken to team leaders such as Mike Modano, Sergei Zubov, Mike Keane and Derian Hatcher and implored them to talk to the younger players about keeping their focus.