At the Dallas Stars’ training camp in Frisco, the mood was celebratory as several hundred fans gathered to watch National Hockey League-sanctioned action for the first time in almost 16 months.
Camps opened around the NHL this week after a season-long lockout that prevented the Stanley Cup from being awarded for the first time since the 1919 influenza epidemic. The Stars are holding their camp in Frisco and at the American Airlines Center for the next week, preparing for a season unlike any other.
“It’s great,” forward Steve Ott said. “Being back in Dallas is the best thing that’s happened to me in the last 18 months, for sure. It’s a great city, a great place and I just love being back here.”
Ott spent last season playing with the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American Hockey League, one of two minor-league franchises the Stars sent their younger players to during the lockout. Most of those players are expected to contribute this year with the NHL team.
Many familiar faces are returning, as well. The public training session featured significant players such as Sergei Zubov and Mike Modano, who the Stars almost lost in free agency this off-season. But around the league, marquee players such as Peter Forsberg, Dany Heatley and Chris Pronger all changed teams.
The NHL also instituted several rule changes designed to increase the offensive flow of the game, including restricting goalie puck handling, tag-up off sides and a league-wide reinforcement of the rules regarding obstruction, hooking and holding.
“I think it’s just going to open up the game a lot more,” said Mark Fistric, the 19-year-old first-round pick from 2004. “It’s going to give the guys a lot more room to skate, take away a lot of the clutching and grabbing.
“I’m more of a rugged, stay-at-home defenseman,” he said. “It’s going to make me have to skate a little bit more and box out instead of grab on to a guy.”
Fistric will spend the season playing defense with the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League, a major junior franchise. His 6-foot 3-inch, 225-pound frame is something the Stars lack on the blue line, but it’s a calculated risk.
The Stars are counting on the rule changes to play a big role in the game, going with smaller, quicker defensemen than they had in their heyday of the late 1990s.
The defense will get its first test when the Stars travel to Colorado to take on the Avalanche Friday in their first preseason game. It will be the first game the Stars have played since being eliminated in the first round of the 2004 playoffs last April – ironically enough, in Denver.
Dallas opens its home schedule Sept. 20, at 7:30 p.m., when the Edmonton Oilers visit the American Airlines Center.
