The Stars Encyclopedia

When Brett Hull's goal-mouth shot sailed past the Buffalo Sabres' Dominik Hasek in triple overtime of Game 6 of the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals, it ended one of the longest playoff games on record and ignited a firestorm of controversy. It also confirmed what many had already known about the National Hockey League team in Texas--the champion Dallas Stars, led by Mike Modano, Derian Hatcher, and Ed Belfour, were now among hockey's elite. Six years earlier, few could have imagined the words "Dallas" and "Stanley Cup" one day being uttered in such quick succession. Long before the team sat atop hockey's summit, the Dallas Stars were the Minnesota North Stars--a product of the Great Expansion in 1967. The North Stars overcame the requisite expansion-team blues and battled bitter rivals in Chicago and St. Louis, Meanwhile, the team survived ownership changes and engineered two improbable runs to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1981 and 1991. However, the shaky economics of professional hockey, not wins and losses, would decide the North Stars' fate. In 1993 the team found an unlikely home--and a passionate new fan base--990 miles south of the Twin Cities. The Stars Encyclopedia is a chronicle of the most influential players and significant moments in the history of this storied franchise, from the team's early struggles to its triumphant reign in Dallas and beyond. Whether readers are fans of the Stars at their current address or ones who long for those blustery nights at Minnesota's old Met Center, The Stars Encyclopedia will prove to be an invaluable resource.