Mourning Morrow: Stars losing the ideal captain

Published 10:48 pm Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Most of the time I simply state how I feel about a sports transaction. I don’t fancy myself expert enough to arbitrarily rate it’s merit.

But, for the life of me, I see nothing good coming out of the Dallas Stars trading captain Brenden Morrow to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Nothing good for Dallas, that is.

The Stars traded away much of the team’s grit last off-season when they sent Steve Ott to Buffalo. He was fast becoming a good all-around hockey player even though he was best known for irritating opponents.

Stars general manager Joe Nieuwendyk was a great hockey player and is a class individual. But if there is a definite plan to take the team in a specific direction, it is eluding me.

Morrow is a gutsy “garbage collector” kind of player, always around the net. He was willing to take whatever punishment was necessary to be in the right place at the right time. In many ways he seemed like the heart and soul of the Dallas Stars. And hockey players don’t come much grittier.

In my mind, Morrow at 34 was also the ideal captain for the Stars right now. He served as a living bridge between the old glory days of several years ago and the current “you gotta believe” situation with its nucleus of young, talented players. During his tenure in Dallas he exemplified leadership, determination and an old-fashioned work ethic that earned him the respect of teammates and fans alike.

A few years ago when the Stars rather unceremoniously rescinded the captaincy from much-loved Mike Modano, it went to Morrow. And as upset as a lot of people were, myself included, I don’t believe anyone felt that Morrow didn’t deserve it. We ached for Mike, but Morrow, the “kid,” seemed born to captain a hockey team.

When the trade bombshell was dropped last Sunday evening, Stars fans everywhere were trying to figure out what esoteric reasoning lay behind it. Was there something going on that we weren’t aware of? How could they, when attendance is down and even we, the faithful, are having to exhort one another to keep believing?

Guess I’ve failed to mention so far that Dallas did get someone in return for Morrow. They got Joe Morrow, a young minor league defenseman that hockey people are very high on, and they got a fifth round draft pick.

Somehow that just adds insult to injury to my way of thinking. I understand that you have to build for the future, but the Stars seemingly have been concentrating on the future for some time now. Will tomorrow ever come? And in Dallas, if the present doesn’t start including at least the playoffs, what kind of future will it be for hockey?

This could still turn out to be one of those win-win trades where both parties get what they need: it would appear, though, that Pittsburgh gets “here-and-now” and the Stars, once again, are settling for “maybe later.”

I’m quite aware that in sports, as in life, my heart can, and often does, override my head. But to lose a player of Brenden Morrow’s character and leadership who also plays the game like he does just seems devastating.

This should be a wonderful opportunity for him. The Penguins have a great team and Brenden will have a chance to win a Stanley Cup.

Those of us who love the Dallas Stars will just have to stay tuned to see what this trade will ultimately mean for our team.

But in the meantime, I will miss The Captain.