Previewing Stars-Avalanche with Sean Shapiro
Our resident hockey expert joins us to preview the first round series.
The NHL playoffs start tomorrow, and here at #SturmStack, it’s perfect time to bring in our editor and resident hockey expert, Sean Shapiro, to chat about our Dallas Stars against the Colorado Avalanche.
One of the things I love about Sean’s coverage is that he has a Stars focus, but also keeps a view at the league at large — the perfect mix of local and national, which brings an important focus, especially come playoff time.
You can follow his tremendous work here, and should, during the playoffs.
Ok, let’s get into it!
Bob: Sean, I must tell you, this has been an incredibly rough few weeks for the optimism levels of DFW with regards to a Stanley Cup run from their Stars. For a team with 106 points and back to back conference finals, we are in a spot where people are bracing to be swept. It is what happens when you go over two weeks without a win to finish the season.
Now, I am the “cup is half-full” guy in my sports world and I refuse to get too upset about setbacks when there is nothing at stake. Yet, it is a lot to just assume they can flip the switch and engage at a very high level starting Saturday Night in Game 1 vs the Avalanche. I believe they have earned the benefit of the doubt based on 36 months under Pete DeBoer and I also believe that defaulting back to the “this is what happens in Year 3 of Pete’s tenures” is also seeing patterns where they probably don’t really exist. Finally, I don’t want to make our playoff preview more about seven games to end a season where virtually nothing was on the line. But, before we proceed, I want to hear your response to that opening positioning statement.