When the Dallas Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 in preseason last week, Matt Duchene took it seriously.
So seriously, in fact, that he took issue with Avalanche players giving him and Tyler Seguin, “crap” for running set plays off face-offs.
“Their guys were giving us crap for setting up plays off of draws and stuff, but we are attacking it like it’s a regular game. We want to hit the ground running. We had a great start last year, and it’s going to take that again this year,” Duchene said. “We are building towards game one against Nashville, and it doesn’t matter who you are playing against… You have to take care of business, and you have to be sharp. All that changes is maybe the level of competition going forward.”
The Stars have stuck by Duchene’s word, they’ve taken preseason seriously. With a win tonight against the St. Louis Blues in the finale, Dallas could finish the preseason undefeated.
Maybe they shouldn’t.
Since ties were abolished in 2004, five NHL teams have gone undefeated in the preseason. Only two have made the playoffs, the Ottawa Senators in 2007 being the most recent, and the past three have had disastrous campaigns.
The 2016-17 Avalanche, which Duchene was a part of, went from undefeated in the preseason to losing 60 games when it really mattered. The 2023-24 New Jersey Devils, a trendy deep playoff pick at this time last season, went 7-0 in the preseason before falling apart in the regular season.
For the superstitious Stars fan, an overtime loss this evening probably wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
A win, to be clear, also wouldn’t be a bad thing.
The Stars aren’t the 2016-17 Avalanche, far from it. They also aren’t the 2023-24 Devils, whose general manager waited way too long to acquire a competent goalie and doomed a fairly-decent roster.
The Stars are a veteran-heavy team — even with Joe Pavelski gone, *ding*– with a purpose. While Duchene and Seguin talked about caring about preseason, the only thing that really matters in Dallas is what happens in May and June.
It’s a lesson that Seguin picked up early in his career, but started better applying with age and time.
Seguin won the Stanley Cup as a teenager with the Boston Bruins in 2011 in his first NHL season. He’s yet to win a second one, and he remains close with many of those players he hoisted the 2011 Stanley Cup with. In fact, there is still an active group chat for the 2011 Stanley Cup champions.
This whole topic reminds me of a conversation I had with Brad Marchand, one of Seguin’s 2011 teammates, during the 2022-23 season. That season, you’ll remember, the Bruins had a historically good regular season and won the Presidents Trophy before losing in the first round to the Florida Panthers.
This was a mid-season conversation, where Marchand told me and another reporter that none of this regular season success mattered. No one cares about regular season records or standings, at the end, Marchand said, his team would be judged by what happened after Game 82.
And that’s how the Stars are this season. It’s a team that’s been to back-to-back Western Conference Finals, expectations are really Stanley Cup or bust, and whether they win or lose the final preseason game tonight really won’t matter.
