I’ve had to take a few days to uncouple from the disappointment of getting unplayoff’d (I wanna say ‘prematurely’ - but was it really?), and after running through the gamut of thoughts and emotions (as I’m sure most of us have) - I realized how much my perspective has shifted over the years.
I became a Stars fan sometime around the ‘09-‘10 season. Jamie Benn came down to Cedar Park for the Texas Stars’ inaugural season playoffs as he was just breaking into the big league.
That was the exciting part.
The not-so-exciting part was the fact that the team had no ownership and thus struggled mightily to attract (and retain) top line talent (Brad Richards, anyone?).
I basically picked the wrong time to become a Stars fan.
The sweaters sucked.
“Pesky Stars” sucked.
Our drafting/prospect pipeline sucked.
It took effort and tunnel vision to stay a fan.
“Maybe Campbell/Glennie/Fraser/etc just needs ONE more season in the Ahl”
“Maybe we can get Mr Superstar to sign here bcuz taxes”
“Maybe we’ll get some dope alternate jersey’s”
Back then, making it to the playoffs seemed just out of reach.
Now, it’s almost come to feel like a foregone conclusion that we’ll not only make the playoffs, but a deep run is expected.
The fact that we’ve drafted and developed players like Robertson, Heiskanen, Hintz etc makes me forgive blunders like the 2014 draft, keeping the wrong Smith (Austin instead of Reilly) or drafting Gurianov instead of Connor/Barzal/Aho/ etc.
I had to remind myself of where my fandom began to let go of my disappointment and instead appreciate how far this team/franchise has come since The Dark Days.