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The Dallas Stars have been plagued by a season of missing men. Veteran Tyler Seguin missed months of the regular season after undergoing hip surgery, although he managed to sneak back into playing shape just in time for the Stanley Cup hunt.
Firecracker Mason Marchment was out for 17 games after taking a puck to the face, and Jason “Hat Trick” Robertson has had to watch the start of the playoffs from the bench after going down with a knee injury. We are also anxiously awaiting the return of Miro Heiskanen, who has not played since late January thanks to a brutal hit that resulted in surgery.
With all the missing men on the ice, it didn’t occur to us until recently that a boisterous Stars regular seems to have disappeared from the sidelines. Nick Moroch, also known as the #BANG guy, is a Dallas Stars season ticket holder who sits directly behind the net the Stars shoot at in the first and third periods. On social media, Moroch said his family has held season tickets for that prime position since the team came to Dallas.
He almost always wears a wrinkled white suit and holds a large white sign that says “#BANG,” which is easy to see on TV and from anywhere in the arena. When the boys in green score, Moroch celebrates as hard as the players do, which is why, with four playoff games now behind us, it was easy to notice his absence.
According to a statement posted to Moroch’s X account, the reason #BANG guy hasn’t been at Stars games this season has nothing to do with falling out of love with the team. Instead, his absence was caused by a “minor car accident” on Nov. 3. According to Moroch, when officers arrived at the scene, they identified Moroch as having an active warrant for a probation violation related to a previous DWI incident.Look at this shit. #texashockey pic.twitter.com/i8LCMHhAQU
— Paul Bissonnette (@BizNasty2point0) May 2, 2024
Dallas County criminal records show that Moroch failed to report to a parole officer in August and September last year, leading to the warrant. Moroch had been on parole after being arrested for a third DWI, a felony in Texas.
“Unaware of the warrant due to a communication breakdown caused by the unforeseen passing of his attorney, Nick was placed under arrest,” the statement says.
It adds that Moroch is serving a sentence at a correctional unit in Wilmer, Texas, and expects to be released in late May.
Moroch has been open with his social media following about his prior DWI arrests. Last November, he posted a photo of an “I Voted” sticker with the caption “monumental day today.”
“Today marks the culmination of a five-year sentence that ended today. Something that people take advantage of on a daily basis and think they’ll never get caught,” Moroch said. “I voted cause I finally can after five years. Drink…Drive…Go To Jail….or even worse.”
Stars win at home tonight over the Kraken, Dallas is 3-0 to start the season 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Fenu8IjUdc
— Dallas Texas TV (@DallasTexasTV) October 14, 2024
Leaving an Impact on the Game
As legend (or social media rumors) has it, Moroch began carrying his large sign after American Airlines Center staff had to get onto the superfan for physically banging on the glass whenever a play came in front of his seat so hard it interfered with cameras broadcasting the game.While Moroch has been doing his thing at Stars games for a while, he gained national attention during last year’s playoffs, when NHL player turned commentator Paul Bissonnette started a back-and-forth Twitter spar with Moroch in which he described the glass banger as “obnoxious.”
As evidenced by the latest episode of his podcast, Spittin’ Chiclets, those feelings have yet to fade. Bissonnette asked former Dallas Star Logan Stankoven about Moroch’s impact on the locker room.
“There is one guy I want to ask about, were you buddies with #BANG guy? The glass banger?” Bissonnette asks Stankoven.
starts and ends with #BANG pic.twitter.com/jgXtVRK4Ss
— NICK MOROCH (@nmoroch) June 13, 2023
Stankoven, who was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes midseason, cordially says he was not friends with Moroch, but that he had noticed the superfan “wasn’t at any of our games this season.” Bissonnette and his co-host, Ryan Whitney, break the news on Moroch’s whereabouts.
“But he’s out, I believe, when the Western Conference finals start. So if the Stars go on a run, they’ll have to deal with that when he comes back,” Whitney said.
“Nobody mentioned [Moroch] at all, at least not when I was around,” Stankoven says. “He’s probably been there for a while; the guys are probably just used to it by now.”
