The off-season might in the in full lull, there isn't much chatter and teams have not been making moves, but there is one person who is not wasting the off-season downtime and that is new head coach of the Dallas Stars, Glen Gulutzan.
Earlier this month, Gulutzan was named head coach of the Stars. This comes after general manager, Jim Nill, fired Pete DeBoer. Though DeBoer took the Stars to the Western Conference Final three years in a row, they were unable to get over the hump that could get them to closer to bringing home the elusive, Stanley Cup.
One of the biggest problem areas for DeBoer's game plan and where the break down seemed to happen every year is when the other team had figured out how to stop the Stars offense. Especially the first two years of DeBoer's tenure against the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers. From the bird's eye view, it appeared once the opponent figured out how to dry up the scoring, the Stars could not adapt. It was the definition of insanity, trying the same thing over and over. The same rush entry, the same movement with the puck on the power-play with no results. Even when the season was on the line, the play did not seem to deviate from what was seen all year.
And to it's credit, the system had worked all year and multiple series, until it didn't. But that is where Gulutzan's insight can be very useful to the Stars. Not only did he get to see the system and now it did not adapt, he was on the coaching staff to the very team that ended the Stars season two years in a row.
Gulutzan spoke with Senior Staff Writer for the Stars, Mike Heika, about just that, stating "really, what I would like to do, and what did in Edmonton, was we were able to adapt and create offense against different defenses." Gulutzan goes on to say, "I wouldn't say we completely changed, but if we had a road trip and we are going to LA and then going to Vegas, we knew we wanted to do things differently in the O-zone."
Obviously adapting should be essential for any coach in the NHL, but it is clear that was a missing piece of the Stars game. There is also an added advantage to having a coach that tailored a system to the Stars strengths. Hopefully Gulutzan can also use knowing what shut the Stars and their talent down as a way to grow in their weak areas and prevent other teams from being successful at what seemed to have been the Stars downfall.
However, because of some cap constraints, Gulutzan will not have as deep of a team to work with as DeBoer, but the Stars are still expected to be one of the top performing teams. Gulutzan also mentioned wanting to get more out of players like Mavrik Bourque and Nils Lundkvist, which would be huge for the Stars in terms of getting production out of players who have small cap hits.
Everything sounds good in hypotheticals, so the real test will come in time but for most Stars fans, Gulutzan seems to have his focus on the right areas.
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