Texas Stars Reveal New Look for Next Season, Including Green Road Jerseys

Francis Wathier and Toby Petersen model the new jerseys. (Credit: Mike Connell/Texas Stars)

In conjunction with their fifth season in the AHL, the Texas Stars announced today their new look for the 2013-14 season including redesigned home and away jerseys. The most significant change is the road jersey. Texas will sport green as their base color and use the "TEXAS" logo which replaces the X with a star as the front crest. The jersey also incorporates a lace up collar. The home jersey will be the same as the 2011-13 alternate jersey.

As previously mentioned, the team did not coordinate with the Dallas Stars on these changes. Dallas is expected to change both their jersey and logo this summer with the announcement planned for June 4th.

More pictures and the full release below. Click on the pictures to expand them.

Here's the release:

The Texas Stars introduced today their new jerseys for the 2013-14 season, which will be the team’s fifth anniversary season in the American Hockey League.

In preparation for the fifth season of AHL hockey in Cedar Park, the Stars will make a significant shift in their road jersey colors. Texas is replacing the all-black away uniform with a primarily dark green jersey, the same dark green that is featured in the team’s logo, and the crest patch will feature the team’s secondary logo. The shoulder cap is white with a primary logo patch on each side. The collar is gold and includes a white lace tie-up. The sweater will also have thick white bands on each sleeve and along the bottom hem, trimmed with black and gold. The matching socks will be principally dark green with three bands of black, gold and white just below the knee.

Texas’ new home jersey is a jersey that was unveiled initially as the team’s alternate jersey prior to the 2011-12 season. The jersey is a predominately white jersey trimmed in dark green and gold, emblazoned with the Texas Stars primary logo on the front crest. The shoulders are dark green and have small patches featuring the Stars’ secondary logo. During the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons the team wore the alternate jersey with the original home socks, which were half white, half dark green, bisected by a thick gold band. The 2013-14 home uniforms will feature a newly designed sock of all white with bands of dark green and gold.

“We are very excited about our new jersey designs and we believe they will help our continuous efforts to strengthen the Texas Stars brand and team identity,” said Stars president Rick McLaughlin. “We have enjoyed tremendous success on and off the ice over the past four seasons and we are really looking forward to initiating our fifth anniversary celebration with this great new look.”

The new jerseys were designed by the Texas Stars in conjunction with Reebok, the official and exclusive jersey supplier to the American Hockey League. The jerseys will be available in both replica and authentic versions at the Texas Stars merchandise stands beginning this Fall.

Texas Stars to Announce New Home and Road Jerseys Later Today

According to sources, the Texas Stars are expected to release details today on new home and road jerseys for the 2013-14 season. The Stars are expected to stay with white as the base color at home but change their base color for the road jersey. The new look will reportedly remove the "TEXAS" and "STARS" wordmarks and player numbers from the front of the jersey.

The changes were not coordinated with the Dallas Stars jersey and logo changes, which are expected to be revealed on June 4th, and do not reflect the changes that are expected there. Remember that the Texas Stars are no longer owned by the same group as the Dallas Stars, so neither front office has worked with the other on these jersey changes.

The process to change the jerseys started before the 2012-13 season even began, given the approvals required from the AHL to change the primary home and away jerseys.

Texas Players, Coaches Looking Forward to Next Year, Wherever They May Be

Alex Chiasson (Credit: Christina Shapiro/Texas Stars)

As we round out the week, there are a few odds and ends left over from the end of season interviews, mostly concerning plans for the summer and next year, that I wanted to get out there.

Alex Chiasson is obviously a player the Dallas Stars have their eye on and many anticipate he won't play another game in Cedar Park, given his end of season heroics in Big D.

"For me it's a big summer," said Chiasson. "You can't take anything for granted. You have to come in and be a player that can play. [Dallas Stars GM] Jim Nill told me yesterday, 'If you're in my top 12, you're going come to Dallas and play. If not, you'll be in [Cedar Park].'"

Chiasson had some shoulder issues during the season, twice missing time due to injury. He told me Monday that he will not be needing offseason surgery. Last summer, he spent time with nutrition and strength guru Gary Roberts. He is undecided as to whether he will be working with Roberts again this summer.

Colton Sceviour was among many players tweeting their thanks to the fans and cleaning out their apartment yesterday. Sceviour got into his second NHL game this season and is looking for more this coming season (something he can finally have a comeback for when his dad pokes fun at him). It seemed that, for whatever reason, he had been passed over for callups. No question the new GM and coaching staff in Dallas will give him a chance to prove his worth anew.

In his time with Dallas, he learned a lot about what it takes to be an everyday NHLer.

"There's a big jump from this level to that level," he said. "You see up there that even the big skill guys, you try to knock them off the puck, and you can't. Everyone is so solid on their skates. I want to work on that, get in the corners and be able to hold off guys and gain possession. I just want to get stronger and more solid on the puck to the point that I can make a statement in training camp."

All signs point to camp being pretty wide open. If Sceviour can make his point in training camp, he might not return to Cedar Park either.

Maxime Fortunus (Credit: Steven Christy)

Another player who has been with Texas all four years, captain Maxime Fortunus, was on a one-year, two-way contract this year to Dallas. When it expires on June 30th, it's still pretty up in the air what the next step will be.

"I've been thinking a lot about it, but I still don't know what's going to happen," said Fortunus. "Coming back here is a good option. It's a good option and one of the best places in the league. You have to think about family and what's best for me as a player. I don't know right now, but I should know more in the next couple of weeks."

And speaking of location changes, the Dallas Stars are looking to fill their head coaching position and coach Desjardins has been guaranteed an interview. As of Monday, Desjardins and Nill hadn't discussed anything regarding the job or the interview.

"There's a lot of things going on up there and right now I'm focused on here," said Desjardins. "We'll see what happens."

Regardless of what happens, Desjardins is extremely grateful for the season that he had here in Texas and is already thinking about how to improve the club for next season.

"The fans and the team have done such a great job here," he concluded. "I was so fortunate to walk into the group that I did this year."

Stars Staying Positive, Looking for More Next Year

Mike Hedden (Credit: Josh Rasmussen/Texas Stars)

If you were to go back and tell the Texas Stars in early November that they would finish the regular season in first place, I think they would probably have been pretty happy with that. If you remember, the Stars were fair to middling to start the year, sporting a record of 3-6 after a shutout loss to the Marlies on November 9th at home.

Colton Sceviour, who has played with Texas all four years of his pro career, put things in perspective a bit, "If you look at the season overall, coming off what happened last year, I think we were projected to finish 24th or so in the league and we ended up finishing 2nd in the league record wise. In the big picture, it was a successful year, but right now it stings that we're not playing."

Looking back at the year that was, the Stars had a pretty remarkable season. Their leader through it all, captain Maxime Fortunus, saw all three phases these Stars went through on the season.

"It was weird," Fortunus remarked. "We've said that we had three teams this year. All year long we've managed to battle hard and win games to finish first. We had a lot of confidence. We knew we had a good team and after the trade deadline we had to gel as fast as possible."

A lot of that gelling and overall hardnosed play can be attributed to the coaching of Willie Desjardins, who was awarded the Pieri Coach of the Year Award for his efforts. It was really quite remarkable to see how the Stars played the same way in game 1 as they did in game 76. No matter who was on the ice, it was Willie Desjardins hockey.

"They demanded hard work," said Sceviour. "From day 1, practices weren't overly long, but they were quick. You always had to have your feet moving. That's one thing they stressed: if we work hard in practice, we'll work down teams in the third period. That was our mentality. We tried to make teams play at our pace and keep up with us."

"They were consistent," he added. "When you were on the ice, it was time to work. If you aren't ready to work, you aren't going to play."

Radek Faksa (Credit: Christina Shapiro/Texas Stars)

That work ethic is a big plus to grow on for Texas, who will return many of the same players as they had this past year.

"There's a good nucleus and we know what we want to do," said Desjardins. "It's exciting for next year. We want more. That's our slogan coming out of playoffs. We're committed to finding a way to be better next year."

Of course, much of that nucleus is still up in the air. However, some of the black ace players from this postseason will be coming back next year, including John Klingberg and Jyrki Jokipakka. The team believes that time with the team provides invaluable experience, even if it is off the ice.

"They said they enjoyed their time," said Coach Lidster regarding the defensemen. "It's good to see how hard the guys approach the game and how hard they work. In some ways, the AHL is more of a grind than the NHL with three-in-threes and bus travel."

Others who will be here eventually but maybe not next year also spent time in Cedar Park, including Radek Faksa, Troy Vance and Emil Molin.

Captain Max Fortunus continued, "They showed they care about the team and they are willing to come here and work hard. I think for guys it's fun to come over and get used to how things work so when they come next year it isn't a surprise. The closer you are here, the closer you are to playing in the NHL. You never know what's going to happen."

How You Can Help Oklahoma Today

(Credit: Tim Lauzon/Texas Stars)

Oklahomans, surely including many Barons' fans, have had a rather unlucky and downright horrible week with the number of devastating tornadoes that have hit the area. I'm sure many of you, like me, are wondering how you can help those affected by the storms.

Neal Livingston, who covers the Oklahoma City Barons at Tend the Farm, has written a post about how you can help. Please follow that link and do what you can.

I wanted to specifically call out Neal's description of the tornadoes in the post.

Living in Oklahoma, tornadoes are a part of the deal. Although not listed in your renters agreement, hotel paperwork, or home closing documents, enduring tornado season is the life of an Oklahoman.

In May of 1999, a week before I graduated from high school, I survived one of the most horrific natural disasters my eyes had ever seen. I still think of those moments, and my brain can’t fully compute what my eyes saw.

Almost 15 years later, my eyes saw a similar scene, and again I struggle to accurately process what I’ve seen first hand, watched on television, and digested through phone calls, emails, and social media. It’s 1999 all over again, and it’s horrifying. 

So follow the link and do what you can. Thanks.

Injuries, Veteran Scoring and Puck Luck Contributed to Stars' Early Exit

(Credit: Steven Christy)

The Stars had exit interviews Sunday with Les Jackson, Jim Nill and Scott White and started leaving for points north Monday. A few players and the coaching staff were around for questions on Monday. With the weekend to collect their thoughts and process the games in OKC, it was a good opportunity to talk about the series in general. There were a few common threads running through the team's thoughts on the series, among them the effects of injuries, impact of veteran scoring and the often-elusive puck luck.

Injuries

Texas had some significant injuries to deal with in the playoffs that came out today now that the season is over.

"Morin's line was great during the regular season, and that line was beat up in the playoffs," said Coach Desjardins. "[Fraser] breaks a finger [in Game 1] and you think, 'How bad can that be?', but when you're a shooter, that's about the worst thing you can have. Morin's banged up, and Sceviour is banged up too."

"All the sudden a group that's instrumental can play hard but isn't as effective. That's just how it was, and it hurt us. You can't change it though."

Some level of alarm was raised as well that the team was seeking to move Alex Chiasson to center, a move they made with Jamie Benn in Dallas. Chiasson allayed any concern that they had moved him from his natural winger position. The move was due to injury.

(Credit: Josh Rasmussen/Texas Stars)

"Dowling had a finger issue and couldn't take faceoffs," said Chiasson. "So I rotated in there. Going into playoffs, I felt comfortable there. It wasn't a switch; they needed someone to win faceoffs."

As to who played the position of center, especially in the defensive zone, that was less clear.

"Dowling and I switched on the ice a lot, but that probably hurt us. [OKC] knew what we were doing. I didn't do much that series; they're a good faceoff team. It's good for me as a player though. You want more in your bag."

With many of their key players injured, the Stars struggled to generate offense. Colton Sceviour had a shoulder issue; Travis Morin was still not 100% after the puck to the head against Milwaukee. Mike Hedden was similarly banged up as well.

"We had guys banged up who we would rely on for goal scoring," said Coach Lidster. "We have to develop secondary scoring."

(Lidster also noted that the Stars were very close to shutting down Patrik Nemeth for the season after his re-injury.)

Veteran Scoring

Part of that desired secondary scoring needs to be of the veteran variety, according to Lidster. He felt that OKC's veteran scoring and playoff experience was a big difference in the series.

"You look at their team. When the NHL went back to work, there was a transition. I know [OKC's coaches] were happy with their team because they thought they were stronger and more cohesive unit. They had guys like Arcobello who've been in the trenches and in the wars. It's not often that you go into the playoff without a lot of experience [like we did]. I think that was a difference."

Sceviour was one of only two top six forwards with AHL playoff experience. (Credit: Josh Rasmussen/Texas Stars)

Among the Stars' top 6, only two had AHL playoff experience, Sceviour and Morin. On the other side, OKC had players like Jonathan Cheechoo, Mark Arcobello and Josh Green just to name a few.

"They're a good team," said Chiasson. "Whoever gets out of the other series, they're going to give them a good shot. They have some experienced guys. You can't take the 50 goals [in the NHL] away from Cheechoo; those are guys that you have to watch."

Both coaches said that they felt OKC played a little bit smarter than Texas in the series with Lidster comparing it to Texas Hold 'Em.

"They had their cards, and they knew when to go all in. When they didn't, they knew when to fold them. They played a smart game. Goaltender was excellent, and we didn't challenge him enough. We have to work on that. Some of their key guys came through."

Puck Luck

The often-elusive puck luck played a big part in the series for the Stars, who had clearly spent some time over the weekend thinking about the chances that could have been.

"There were plays that we just didn't score on," said Desjardins. "Pucks were just laying there. We're up 3-2 in Game 4. We have two breakaways, and we didn't score. Those go in, and it's a different series. That said, they didn't go in, and we have to learn from that."

Colton Sceviour added, "If you give them chances, they can score 3 goals on 3 chances. They have those kinds of guys that can bury pucks given the opportunity.  We couldn't score on our chances and ended up giving them too many."

"We just didn't capitalize on our grade A chances. There were tons of chances where you look at it and say, 'If that goes in, it changes the game'."

Coach Desjardins had some sage words on the whole playoff series though, as closing thoughts.

"[In the playoffs,] opposing teams get better, and you either get better yourself or fall by the wayside. I have no complaint about whether our guys wanted it. Playoffs bring out the best in you. Before the last game, I said, 'A diamond is just a chunk of coal that made good under pressure.' That's what the playoffs are. Right at the start you don't always turn into that diamond. It doesn't mean we can't but just not this year."

Reports: Dallas and Edmonton to Play Preseason Game in OKC

Justin Schultz will be back and no doubt get a very nice reception from the Barons' faithful. (Credit: Steven Christy)

According to reports, the Dallas Stars will play the Edmonton Oilers in Oklahoma City during the NHL preseason next year. Friend of the site, Neal Livingston, broke the news, which had been swirling as a rumour for a while.

The game will no doubt feature many players expected on the Texas and OKC rosters next season, as have many preseason games in the past. It will be the first time Dallas has played a preseason tilt in a minor league barn since the unofficial Stars v. Stars friendly match during the inaugural season in Cedar Park. The Minnesota Wild were scheduled to play Dallas last year in Boise as part of their training camp in Idaho, but those plans were scuttled by the NHL lockout.

The elephant in the room here is no doubt the attendance issue. The series against Oklahoma City averaged just under 1,900 fans. Livingston did point out in an earlier post that those fans in attendance were very passionate and knowledgeable. The Barons were competing for much of the series with the Oklahoma City Thunder playoffs, both home and away dates. They should see a big bump from the obvious marketing appeal of an NHL team, especially one that had a lot of players in OKC last season. There's also the benefit of the Stars being the closest team to OKC, which may bring the travelers from the Metroplex and even Dalls or NHL fans in general who now live in Oklahoma.