Wednesday 13 April 2011
Been there, bought a T-shirt
Hours before the Dallas Stars fired Marc Crawford yesterday, Tim Cowlishaw, columnist for The Dallas Morning News, published an article detailing how the Stars should, in fact, fire Crawford and hire former head coach Ken Hitchcock.
Now, you might say, "Did Cowlishaw know something?"
Possibly. That son of a bitch is inexplicably plugged in.
However, I tend to look at it like this: It's such a stupid fucking idea that only a doofus like Cowlishaw could come up with it.
It has taken a full decades, 10 rubbernecking years for the Dallas Stars to finally move on from 1999. They were the Uncle Ricoes of the NHL. They just knew if coach would have put them in the final game of the season, they would've won state.
They could still throw that football over those mountains.
They dreamt of sitting in a hot tub with their soul mate.
It was a decade of sticking with Mike Modano, re-signing Richard Matvichuk, dealing with Jere Lehtinen's and Sergei Zubov's ailing bodies and always chasing that 1999 dream.
Two years ago, a sea change took place. Kinda.
Joe Nieuwendyk was named general manager. This stinks of 1999. However, it was a new guy in a new role. He hired Crawford. The Zubov dream died. Modano was let go. Lehtinen retired.
They went and traded for a young goalie. They rebuilt the team around young, exciting players.
Now dipshits like Cowlishaw want to blow it all apart by bringing Hitchcock back in.
For one, Hitchcock hasn't done a whole lot post-Dallas. He helped the Philadelphia Flyers post three good seasons. However, that resulted in just one trip to the Eastern Conference Finals. In Columbus, he bombed like the nervous, unfunny guy at open-mic night.
Two, the retread thing never works. For every Billy Martin, there's countless Joe Gibbses, Art Shells and Red Holzmans.
Nothing against what Hitchcock did here in Dallas. He was great in every way. A personable guy, who coached the hell out of those Stars teams. People are worried about filling seats at the American Airlines Arena despite admitting the hiring wouldn't be good.
Do you know what fills seats in stadiums and arenas? Winning. Just as the Texas Rangers.
