Seguin stands at another window
It may have closed in Boston, but it’s opening in Dallas
Tyler Seguin knows more than most 24year-olds just how deceptive a window in sports can be.
He won a Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins as a rookie in 2011, and it looked like the team would stay on top for years to come with their young talent.
Two years later, he was a member of the Dallas Stars and today, the core of that Bruins team is fading into hockey’s ether, with their Stanley Cup window firmly slammed shut.
Seguin was a part of Stars team that won 50 games and had 109 points last season, and he was the team’s second-leading scorer with 73 points. But an Achilles and calf injury kept him out of all but one playoff game in the spring as the Stars fell to the St. Louis Blues in a seven-game, second-round series.
Feeling fully healthy now, Seguin looks at a season that is still a couple of months away. He’s a key part of a young, talented team and he sees the opportunity in front of it.
“I feel like our window has just opened now,” Seguin said Wednesday at the Biosteel camp.
“I’m looking forward to a big season in Dallas.”
Bowing out as the top seed in the Western Conference hurt, especially for the injured Seguin, but he looks at it as a part of the Stars’ journey.
“I think a lot of it has to do with experience and getting that taste in your mouth of winning a playoff round, playoff game, of losing a playoff game and a playoff round and getting closer. Knowing what that feels like and knowing what that atmosphere is like,” he said.
“Our goal all along is to make the playoffs this season and place ourselves properly to win a championship, and I think we’ve got that taste in our mouths.
“I think that drove all the guys through the off-season and I’ve definitely felt that.”
Before he can begin the hunt for his second Stanley Cup, the Brampton native will suit up for Canada at next month’s World Cup of Hockey, which will be held in Toronto.
Sharing the ice this week with Edmonton Oilers phenom Connor McDavid gave him an up-close glimpse of what teams could face from the North American team at the tournament, featuring Canadians and Americans under 23 years old.
“I think they’re the one team that I’m most interested to see,” said Seguin, who won a gold medal with Canada at the 2015 world hockey championship, the first of back-toback titles.
“I’m six or eight months away from playing on that (under-23) team but that’s the team that doesn’t have a lot of pressure and has a little swagger and a little bit of a chip on their shoulder.”
Seguin will take part in the tournament without his teammate and Stars captain, Jamie Benn. The 27year-old is recovering from surgery to repair a core muscle injury and, while he should be ready for the Stars’ training camp, he had to opt out of the tournament.
Benn was replaced on the Canadian team by San Jose Sharks forward Logan Couture. “I know how much of an honour and how proud he is to wear his country’s colours — obviously, going to the Olympics (in 2014) — and I also know how committed he is to Dallas,” Seguin said. “That decision was a tough decision for him but I think he’ll be 100 per cent ready to go for the season.”
As for his own health issues, Seguin said he’s felt fully healed for the last “couple of weeks or so.”
“The thing I had with this injury and the injury I had last season was that it was frustrating because no one could give me a timeline,” he said. “No one had experienced it or could say what was going to happen or how it was going to go.
“Now I’m feeling 100 per cent and that’s exciting.”