The Big O

It could be that Brenden Morrow's head hurts, which might explain why the thoughts come slowly, even a little unwillingly. It would certainly figure. His face is decorated with black stitches across the left part of his nose and above the left eyebrow, and his forehead is spotted with what hockey players consider "character"--purple-red bruises.

But it's probably not the pain that's numbed his tongue; he's a tough young man, and besides that they all tend to take a perverse pride in discomfort. More likely, he's not sure how to proceed, because this sort of thing can get tricky, and he tends to be the polite, demure type anyway. No need to piss anyone off, you understand. But how do you discuss this diplomatically? How do you talk about the Stars this year, a unit that's proven adept at scoring goals and winning games, without naturally segueing into some of the problems they had doing those things in abundance in the past few seasons?

The answer is you don't. You can't. Which is why the topic gives Morrow pause.

"I think, you know, maybe we have a little more freedom now," he begins gingerly, staring at the floor and kicking at a piece of carpet with his skate blade. "If we make a mistake, coach has enough...he just knows that some hard work will make up for it. Maybe before we didn't have that, or maybe we didn't have enough of it. We were always making sure that we didn't break down defensively. That was the main focus. I think, now, at least offensively, there's more, um, freedom."

It's a common refrain in the room this year. The atmosphere is more relaxed under new head coach Dave Tippett, nearly devoid of the drama that permeated the club when Ken Hitchcock was the steward. The end product, the players say, is a professional, comfortable crew that is left to worry about hockey rather than how to best deal with the coach's ire.

That was one of the knocks on Hitch, of course--that he rode his charges unmercifully and without regard for how it might affect their disparate personalities. The spats with the likes of Brett Hull and Mike Modano became legend, and thereafter questions of Hitch's effectiveness were more frequent. By the end of his tour here, it wasn't solely the stars who were whispering gripes about him; it was the Stars.

Demanding coaches tend to be unloved coaches, and it didn't help any that the organization had fallen from its Stanley Cup perch. Where winning bred a number of Hitchcock supporters, not winning enough spawned a commensurate amount of detractors. But none of that means the man had lost his ability to coach the game. Clearly, he remains one of the better directors in the league, despite the Flyers' recent trials. It's just that sometimes, as the Stars are finding out, a change is needed in order to continue forward.

"It's gone well; we looked to build a close group," Tippett says with a ventriloquist's skill--his lips, and the moustache above them, barely move as he speaks. "I've said all along that our leadership core in here will have a lot to say about how we act and play as a team. We've tried to create an atmosphere where everyone enjoys coming to the rink every day. With the one goal in mind: The sole idea is winning. They have to be comfortable to do that, and I think their confidence helps."

Since Tippett took over, there's been fewer confrontations and more concentration, which may or may not have directly affected the Stars' standing or their improved offense. In truth, they probably don't care what the catalyst has been to all this production--only that it happened. Through Monday, the Stars stood atop the Western Conference.

It's a position that suits them well, and one they probably always expected to command. The fans probably expected it, too, but nothing is ever certain in sports, eh? Which is why the Stars' winning renaissance is less the story here than how they are winning. It was no secret that Hitchcock's first and only rule was sound defense. It was a hard point to argue considering how he had the highest winning percentage (.616) of any coach in Stars history.

Now, though, Dallas is going a different route, and damn if it isn't working. At press time, the Stars were third in the league in scoring and first in goals. That's a marked improvement from last season, when they finished 15th in both scoring and goals. They've accomplished all that by sharing the puck--only Mike Modano (fourth) ranks among the top 10 NHL scorers. Meanwhile, they have four players--Derian Hatcher, Jere Lehtinen, Philippe Boucher and Scott Young--who circulate with the top 10 plus-minus leaders. And still the Stars are one of the league's premiere defensive clubs (first in goals-against average).

When all the confounding numbers are purged, it means, simply, this: They can do what they've always done, play defense, but now they can also score more than one or two goals per game. That's significant, not just for excelling in the regular season, but for potentially advancing deep into the playoffs. And that's the ultimate objective, isn't it? Because leading this and that in December is fine, but it pales in comparison to playing hockey when the weather is warm.