Stars Shining Again

Stars roster

At the half-way point of the season Dallas has 48 points to share the lead in the Pacific Division. However, the Stars are 13-5-2 in their last 20 games after playing losing hockey for the first quarter of the season.

"Our work ethic is there," said Stars coach Ken Hitchcock. "We're not cheating ourselves. We're coming to work every day. We're up 2-1 and we're not trying to hit a home run. We're playing smart hockey."

After a short off-season, the Stars were obviously suffering from Stanley Cup hangover and expected to win games without full effort.

"We were becoming a team that was not together," Hitchcock said. "The players at times don't trust the coach to leave the dressing room alone and let the players deal with it, and then the coach doesn't trust the players because he doesn't think that they're talking the right talk and walking the right walk."

Injuries have also hit Dallas hard. Jere Lehtinen missed many games, Derian Hatcher, Joe Nieuwendyk, Shawn Chambers and Brian Skrudland are still out. Mike Modano and Darryl Sydor were hurt at one point.

"The first two months were real tough," Modano said. "I don't think anybody expected it to be that hard."

Things are looking up now. The last five weeks the Stars have played exceptionally well and their position in the standings has risen accordingly.

"We're playing really hard, playing a simple game," Sydor said. "There are things we can do better, but the chemistry is there again within the team."