from Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News,

Dallas has missed the playoffs in six of the last seven seasons. That's tough to do in this league.

It has been 16 years since the Stars won the Stanley Cup. It has been 10 years since their last division championship (which capped a run of seven in nine years).

These are not your father's Stars.

This is not a problem created by the people here now, but it is one they have to acknowledge and accept. The reality is that this team has gone through bankruptcy, created a reality show rotation of coaches and players, and lost a lot of relevancy in Dallas and the NHL.

All of that is important as you ruminate on a 1-6-0 preseason. That kind of performance erodes confidence at home and perception around the league. It creates serious questions or, even worse, apathy.

And it is a problem of the Stars' own making.

Bottom line is you don't set out to go 1-6-0 in preseason, so you must have done something wrong. You don't address your goaltending question marks by posting the worst goaltending preseason numbers in the league, so you must have done something wrong. You don't create positive momentum by playing poorly, so you must have done something wrong.

And the Stars have to embrace that.

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