Previewing Stars-Avalanche with Bob Sturm

Time for a chat to discuss Round 1 with my good pal.

Good morning.

The NHL playoff start tomorrow, with the Dallas Stars hosting the Colorado Avalanche in Game 1.

It’s a fascinating series, one that I started writing about last week.

On the Stars, Avalanche, and the first-round prize fight we've all been waiting for

Today we wanted to bring a conversational tone to the preview, so I teamed up with my pal Bob Sturm over at Sturm Stack to discuss a Stars-Avalanche in a piece thats’ being co-published at both places.

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.