This current trip has a twist with fathers, family members, and mentors of players and staff traveling with the team. The guest list includes the fathers of 15 players. The hope is that provides a spark as the team tries to change its fortunes on the road.
"Anytime you can look for a cause, or anytime you can look for something like that to play for, that's an advantage," said Stars coach Ken Hitchcock. "There's a lot of games in the season and if you can find special situations where you can take advantage of it emotionally, then you ought to do that because otherwise all the game start to run together."
The Stars will face a test tonight in Vegas which leads the Pacific Division, has won five straight games and is 9-1-0 at home.
"Skill, smarts, hockey sense, good players," Hitchcock said of what he sees in the Golden Knights. "Their hockey IQ is very high. They are not going to beat themselves. They are not going to go in slumps. They are for real. And I think it is up to the rest of us to catch up.
"They've got a lot of depth. If they get scored on, they score their way out of games. And if they need to shut a game down, they shut a game down. That's hockey intelligence, and that's very unique."
