WHO ORDERED ANOTHER ROUND?!

"If you don't change today your tomorrows will be just like your yesterdays."

My palms will be bruised from all the back slapping by the time this entry is finished.

Where do you start?

A group of defensemen operating sans Sergei Zubov, with less than a hundred playoff games to their credit, outplayed the Ducks "Mount Rushmore" of rearguards -- and by a sizeable margin.

Marty Turco made momentum stifling saves early in five of the six contests and gave the Stars a man advantage with his superb and cerebral puck movement.

The triumvirate of talented centers; Ribeiro, Richards and Modano gave Dallas a depth at forward that proved impossible for the Ducks to match.

And the Stars powerplay proved to be the perfect foil for Anaheim's at times arrogant and dimwitted style of play.

Individually, guys like Robidas with his gladiator mentality, Morrow with his unbridled passion, Ott with his incessant petulance, Eriksson with his emerging puck play, Norstrom with that viking toughness, Barnes with the AAC heroics -- I could go on and on. They all, to a man, contributed.

Of course the coaches deserve a healthy wack of the credit.

Player Personel Director Dave Taylor too, he did a lot of the game planning with his pre-scout recon on the Ducks.

But in an awkward and difficult to explain vein, management and ownership deserve the lion share - and by 'management' I mean both past and present.

Former G.M. Doug Armstrong was fired in November but you don't need to be CSI to find his fingerprints all over this series winning roster. His trades for Barnes, Ribeiro, Norstrom, and Robidas had a major impact on the victory.

The current co-G.M.s, led by Les Jackson, had the brass to demand the playing of the franchise's young players while at the same time creating a much needed cocoon of trust and easiness. Roles within the scouting and coaching hierarchy were well defined, and the blockbuster trade so desperately needed to boost playoff success potential was consummated.

But it goes without saying that without Mr. Hicks' nerve, ear, and pocketbook none of the afore mentioned happens. He listened, trusted, acted, and then stepped aside.

Sure it's only one round, but for a franchise parched in the playoffs for five years, with a fandom that showed it had more pent up celebratory emotion than an 80 year old Cubs fan, I say cue the streamers and the fireworks -- and enjoy!