God Help Me, I Kinda Want The Stars To Win the Stanley Cup

Very rarely do I take off my Wild Analyst Pince-Nez and put on my Wild Fan Sweatpants at Hockey Wilderness, but hey, it's the offseason. You gotta wear sweatpants sometimes, and today's that day.

The NHL is down to its final four teams: The Carolina Hurricanes, Dallas Stars, Edmonton Oilers, and Florida Panthers. It's hard to tell where the allegiance of the State of Hockey generally is in this field, but it's not hard to narrow it down to three. No self-respecting Minnesota Wild fan is rooting for the Dallas South Stars. We don't need to rehash this -- they know what they did.

As for me, though, one of the many things I lack is self-respect. And while I'm not super-proud of it, I'm not gonna be sad if I see the Dallas Stars lift the Cup this year.

In fact, I kinda want them to.

That brings up a crucial question: Why? And even I'm kinda interested to drill down to find the exact reason. 

The easy answer is that Wild alumni Mikael Granlund and Matt Dumba would lift the Cup, and sure, that would absolutely be rad. Dumba might be hurt this postseason, but he's an All-Time Dude for me when it comes to Wild players, and getting to see him be a Stanley Cup Champion would kick ass. It'd be a satisfying reward after a decade-long career that was unfairly derailed just as he was making a star turn.

Same for Granlund, who got a bad rap from being around a lot of failed Wild playoff runs. A lot of people came to believe he was the kind of player you can't win with. 14 games, four goals, and nine points later, it sure doesn't seem like the Stars are having any issues with that. Maybe the problem wasn't with him, after all. 

But that doesn't explain it all. Because if you look at Carolina, they've got Brent Burns, who's like if a cartoon character was also a Hall of Fame defenseman. I'm not an NHL jersey/merch guy, but Burns is (along with Joe Thornton) the subject of one of the few shirts I own.

Burns also has the "One of Us" thing going, having rocked in Minnesota, even if his full potential didn't get fully unleashed until he teamed up with Thornton, Joe Pavelski, and Patrick Marleau's power play. He's also great, and Carolina is a team that, even if they're not "fun" to "watch," they are at least good players to root for. 

Still, I don't have much attachment to the Canes, even if I can respect the organization. And if it's not Carolina I'd pull for at this time, who is it?

Florida's had theirs. Great run, but let's see something new. It's extremely funny to me that Canada hasn't won the Stanley Cup since the early '90s, and I want that streak preserved at all costs. Sorry, Connor McDavid. 

So, that just leaves Dallas. Totally understand why it's a non-starter for Minnesota fans, especially those older than I am. But outside of a beef from a generation ago, I just can't harbor much ill will toward the Stars. 

That's not the case for other teams in the Central Division, once I put my Fan Sweatpants on. I have friends in the Colorado Avalanche fanbase, and it gives me glee to twist the knife on them when things go wrong for their team.

I fiercely hate the St. Louis Blues. If you think the "No. 1 Wild Fans" banner is embarrassing (and it is), it could be worse. Just remember: the Blues retired the number of a guy who played 18 games for them and effed off. It'd be like if the Wild retired Ryan O'Reilly's number. Loser energy, get outta here. 

If St. Louis lost their team, I'd spike the football in their face for weeks. Maybe months. Maybe years.

Try as I might, I can't summon those feels for Dallas, even after two playoff series in recent memory, which normally produces hard feelings. The worst anyone can say about the Stars is that they baited Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman into taking bad penalties and dived. But let's be honest: it's not like it was taking an unbelievable amount of effort to get Foligno and Hartman heated and losing their cool. They played the game within the game, and it worked.

But mostly, I think it's just the fact that I really respect the teambuilding Jim Nill's done, and has for a decade-plus now. Dallas' GM raised his team's profile on the backs of two fifth-rounders (Jamie Benn and John Klingberg) and a bold trade for a former-top-10-pick, 60-point center in their early 20s (Tyler Seguin) whose team didn't want him for... reasons???

He took a boring also-ran and made them one of the most fun teams in the NHL.

Getting a Draft Lottery win in 2017 to move up to third overall to take Miro Heiskanen was a great break for them, of course, but Nill has made his own luck, too. Thomas Harley (18th overall in 2019) and Wyatt Johnston (23rd overall in 2021) are both bona fide star players. So are Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson, who make up the backbone of Dallas' forward group as Benn and Seguin have aged. They successfully drafted and developed their own goalie in "One of Us," Jake Oettinger. 

Then, of course, they were opportunistic in doing a roundabout theft of Mikko Rantanen from a division rival. If you're not impressed by that, I'm not sure what will get you on board.

Looking at all this, I think the heart of why I'm rooting for Dallas is because I look at them as something the Wild could be. Other than Heiskanen, the Stars didn't build their empire on top-three picks the way that Edmonton and Florida did. They drafted smart and developed from within, making smart deals to supplement their team (Rantanen, yes, but also Matt Duchene, Mason Marchment, Evgenii Dadonov, and Granlund) en route to becoming a juggernaut.

That could be the Wild if they play their cards right. They already have Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy on board. They have Marco Rossi in the fold (if they're smart), scoring 60 points for them at center. The fruits of Minnesota's drafting and talent acquisition are about to hit the NHL -- Zeev Buium, Danila Yurov, Liam Öhgren, Jesper Wallstedt, and David Jiricek, to just name the headliners. There's no reason this team can't soon look a lot like the Stars do right now. 

And that's exactly what Fan Sweatpants Tony wants: a team bursting with talent that's ready to make a deep playoff run. If we have to see Dallas lift the Cup, don't fret too hard. The Wild might be poised to follow in their footsteps.