Dallas will play in the Stanley Cup Final against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who advanced with a 2-1 overtime win against the New York Islanders in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final on Thursday. Game 1 of the Cup Final is at Rogers Place in Edmonton, the hub city for the conference finals and Cup Final, on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVAS).
"I think you reach this point, and the only option is to win," Stars forward Andrew Cogliano said Thursday. "I think we have a lot of guys on our team that are very hungry to do that, guys that have been in Dallas for a long time and guys that have been playing in the League for a while on other good teams that haven't won. … It's time for us to really push ourselves to make that next step."
General manager Jim Nill was in the front office when the Detroit Red Wings won four championships, in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008, but waited for years for the right time to become a GM and has been working since 2013 to get the Stars to this point.
Coach Rick Bowness played 173 NHL games as a center from 1975-82 and has been behind the bench for more than 2,500 NHL games in various roles since 1984-85. He has made the Cup Final twice, as an associate with the Vancouver Canucks in 2011 and an assistant with the Lightning in 2015. Each time, he lost.
"I've only been there a couple times," Bowness said Thursday. "You get to that Stanley Cup Finals, man, it stays with you the rest of your life. It's painful."
Forward Jamie Benn, the captain, has been with the Stars since 2009-10. His first four seasons, and seven of his first nine, they didn't make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This is not only his first appearance in the Cup Final, it's his first time past the second round.