Stars Raise the BannerArchived from 1999-2000 season. | |
The Dallas Stars raised the Stanley Cup banner before starting the new season with a 6-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Stars have a new and younger look. Gone are Pat Verbeek, Dave Reid, Craig Ludwig, Tony Hrkac and Roman Turek. New faces include touted youngsters Jamie Pushor, Juha Lind and Pavel Patera. "This isn't a whole new offensive system," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. "This is just a system that's based on more use of what we have as a team. We have more speed, so let's make better use of it. We're trying to become more of a team that's going to come out cleaner, rather than jam it in areas and try to jam it out. With the new owner Mario Lemieux watching, the Penguins jumped to an early lead with Kip Miller scoring first of his two goals. It didn't take long for the Stars to respond with a power-play goal by Joe Nieuwendyk and Dallas never looked back. The Stars got a pair of goals from Mike Modano, Brett Hull and Joe Nieuwendyk each added a goal and two assists and Jamie Langenbrunner and Juha Lind each had a goal. "Despite the fact we lost some players from last year, we have a lot of talent left," said Guy Carbonneau, at 39 years, 6 months, the oldest player in the NHL this season. "The kids in training camp showed a lot of promise." The Stars are clearly capable of repeating, but it is going to be difficult. "Last year was an unbelievable season, going all year being the best team in the league and being able to win the Stanley Cup," Carbonneau said. "I think the same goal is in our mind this year, but we know it'll be much harder than it was last year because everybody wants to try to beat the best." |
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