Stars hope to restore shine with Hitchcock

When Ken Hitchcock 2.0 is introduced as the Dallas Stars’ head coach for the second time in his career during a news conference on Thursday, will anyone ask him what his goals-against average was last season?

We’re joking, of course, but the point is this: Does the biggest concern for the Stars rest behind the bench or in net?

Even with Lindy Ruff ’s respected track record as an NHL head coach, he could not find a solution for the Stars’ penchant of fishing pucks out of their own net, whether it be because of leaky defence or a cache of odorous goals allowed by the duo of Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi.

In the end, Ruff ’s downfall came from an inability to fix the Stars’ Achilles heel — 262 goals against in 2016-17. Only the 30th-place Colorado Avalanche allowed more.

Even in 2015-16, a season in which the Stars finished second overall in the NHL with 109 points, they finished just 20th in team defence.

In his previous stint with the Stars from 1995 to 2002, Hitchcock led the team to a 277-154-12 record with 60 ties, five first-place finishes, two conference championships and a Stanley Cup victory in 1999 over Ruff’s Buffalo Sabres. Of course, that signature moment came with Ed Belfour in goal — a luxury Hitchcock doesn’t have when he peers down at the blue paint this time around.

Now that he’s brought Hitchcock back into the fold, general manager Jim Nill’s mandate is clear: Bring in talent to help address the warts on the blue-line and between the pipes.

Hitchcock’s track record shows he’s had a shrewd habit of sucking the life out of opposing offences with average goaltending.

During his reign as bench boss in Philadelphia, for example, the Flyers twice finished in the top seven in goals against with Roman Cechmanek and Robert Esche in goal. In Columbus, he turned the Blue Jackets into a top-10 defensive team with Pascal Leclaire between the pipes.