The Cowboys have the 49ers. The Mavericks have the Lakers. Now, the Stars have a lingering nemesis of their own.
I can't tell you how many Dallas Stars fans there were in 1997. But the first team to truly break these people's hearts was the Edmonton Oilers, an upset winner in a tight, vicious seven-game first round series in which the final goal came in the second overtime at Reunion Arena.
There are a lot more Stars fans today, and the last team to break their hearts was the Edmonton Oilers. After taking a 2-1 series lead, it appeared Dallas was about to host its first Stanley Cup Final games ever at the American Airlines Center when Connor McDavid and the Oilers' power play roared to life and the Stars had no answer, losing a six-game conference finals last spring.
So let's roll the dice again and see what happens with Mikko Rantanen involved this time. Who's not ready for that? Dallas and Edmonton in the playoffs for the eighth time, dueling it out in another Western Conference finals that starts here at the AAC at 7 on Wednesday night.
Did I say eighth time? Think about that. Dallas has advanced to the playoffs 20 times since moving here in 1993, and 40% of the time the Oilers have worked their way onto the Stars' schedule. I would put it just below Cowboys-49ers and somewhere hovering around Mavs-Lakers in terms of a conference rivalry that sustains itself for the length of more than one generation.
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I don't think a lengthy discourse on why Cowboys-49ers ranks No. 1 is necessary, but for the younger crowd that knows only early playoff losses to San Francisco in recent years with George Kittle laughing and bullying his way to victory, once upon a time these teams played in six NFC championship games. Dallas won four of them, using the first as a springboard to its first Super Bowl, and later winning back-to-back games that were the most memorable victories of the consecutive Super Bowl seasons under Jimmy Johnson.
As for the Mavs, they have faced 14 different Western Conference opponents (counting Seattle-Oklahoma City as one) and played several of them between four and six times. But Magic and the Lakers gave Dallas its first two second-round defeats in the mid-'80s. The Mavericks then went to seven games in their first Western Conference finals in 1988 against LA. And I'm still not sure I've ever heard the ACC louder than the Sunday afternoon on which the Mavs finished a second-round sweep of Kobe and the defending champion Lakers en route to the 2011 NBA title.
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I don't need to even tell you why the Mavs and Lakers' rosters should maintain this uncomfortable rivalry for the near future.
The Oilers and Stars belong in this class. The history that ignited this rivalry was stunning. They played in five straight playoffs from 1997-2001, Dallas always having home-ice advantage as the superior regular season team. And, in fact, Edmonton' only series win was that devastating first one, but these teams played remarkably tight, physical hockey. From Game 3 of that '97 series through a '99 sweep (the year the Stars hoisted the Cup), they played 14 consecutive one- or two-goal games. Nothing came easy for anyone. Eleven of the 14 games had one-goal margins, five of them going into overtime, the '99 clincher ending in triple overtime up in Edmonton when a Sergei Zubov shot from the blue line bounced off Joe Nieuwendyk's hip (he was Conn Smythe-bound) into the net.
The Stars won again in '03 but the teams then took a two-decade break before colliding in last year's conference finals. It was only the second time the Oilers gained the upper hand. Edmonton has reason to believe it still has Dallas' number. It has had everyone's number for the last three weeks, winning eight of the last nine against the LA Kings and Vegas. The Stars' outstanding penalty killers must keep the Edmonton power play in check (no goals on the road yet) to make this thing work, and finally get back into a Final that feels like a Final. It's still hard to count the club's 2020 bubble series against Tampa Bay, witnessed by no one in the Edmonton stands, as a Stanley Cup Final.
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Stars fans may have to grow accustomed to booing two different Edmonton goalies. Calvin Pickard won all six of his playoff starts before being injured. Stuart Skinner was bad early against LA (hence Pickard's arrival) and terrific in two shutouts against Vegas last week. Skinner will start Game 1, Pickard will join the fun at some point and neither one of them is Cujo, or, for that matter, Jake Oettinger. The Stars' goaltender was at his best in the Winnipeg series.
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I don't think this series will be all about goaltending. In this rivalry, it mostly hasn't been except for that initial Curtis Joseph vs. Andy Moog battle in '97 when the Oilers won all three overtime games. I think Dallas has a deeper defensive corps now and better special teams, but that doesn't mean McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are easily stoppable in any sense. It's hard to imagine this series going any shorter than six games, and it may take the full seven which is when Pete DeBoer's magic (a 9-0 record) will be tested a final time.
Embrace the rivalry, this is as good as professional sports gets.
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