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The Stars are expected to win. There's pressure from the fans, the media and within the organization itself to succeed. It's what drives Dallas.
By TERRY JONES -- Sun Media

DALLAS -- The grassy knoll. Dallas Alley. Deep Ellum. The Bone. Bob's Steak House. Christie's Sports Bar. Sonny's BBQ.

Been here.

Done that.

Doing it again.

Even used the same opening paragraph again.

But when it comes to hockey, it's a different town in 2007 than it was in 1997, as the Vancouver Canucks-Dallas Stars Stanley Cup playoff series switched to The Big D.

In 1997, the Edmonton Oilers came here for what would be the first of six series in a span of seven seasons.

Back then, the day before Game 1 of the first round series with the Stars, there was one small story on maybe the eighth sports page of the Dallas Morning News.

Now it's main sports page stuff, with three writers per paper on the road and tough stuff being written, putting pressure on everybody in the organization to get the team back where they were when they were beating the Oilers in all but one of those fabulously entertaining series.

Doug Armstrong, the Stars GM, has been here for the entire ride, including a Stanley Cup triumph, since the Minnesota North Stars moved south.

'A fad sport'

"When we came down to Dallas it was a fad sport. They didn't know. But Jim Lites, our president, right from the beginning, put together a real grass-roots program to grow the game from the bottom up with youth hockey," said Armstrong.

"When we came here we had one place to practice and it had a sand floor.

"When we showed up, chunks of sand were coming through it. Now we have eight buildings with double sheets of ice here.

"When you look back at that first series with the Oilers and where Dallas was as a hockey city then, and where it is now, I can only marvel," said the Sarnia, Ont. native and son of long-time NHL linesman and Montreal Canadiens scout Neil Armstrong.

"Hopefully we are the template the NHL will use to go into sun belt locations. If you don't go into the grass roots, you are playing a very dangerous game. This franchise is going to be healthy for a long, long time.

Core fans

"Those people now have become our core fans and grown up with hockey. The papers reflect that."

Which is where we're headed here.

The fans and media are putting real pressure on Armstrong and coach Dave Tippett to have playoff success this year.

It's a similar situation, in some ways, to Detroit with all their recent early exits despite having the best record in the NHL in the last 10 years.

Dallas has the second-best record in the league over that span and have lost their last two first-round series in five games, and lost all three home games against Colorado last year.

"It's a double-edged sword," said Armstrong.

"In one way, it's very gratifying. We now have the expectation level of traditional hockey markets.

"We've always put that kind of pressure on ourselves internally. But when you get it externally, it's more real.

"When you're going through it, like this, it's not that comfortable.

"But it only helps, not hurts."

The difference is Detroit has been Hockeytown for a long time.

Appreciation

"Dallas doesn't yet have the appreciation of what players accomplish on a nightly basis.

"People have started to take it for granted to have 100-point seasons."

The Stars aren't the only game in town, or even in their own building as was the case here yesterday as the NBA Mavericks played an afternoon game in American Airlines Arena.

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