The Stars a have a culture that breeds mediocrity. It’s been established and publicly asserted.



This franchise has missed the playoffs in eight of the last 10 seasons and seen its CEO blast players in an unprecedented rant. The most recent entry — a public admittance by the coach — has provided more than enough evidence that the Stars have real issues.



The Stars knew that and tried to fix that in each of their last two head coaching searches.



When Lindy Ruff’s contract expired, the message from ownership was that Ken Hitchcock’s old-school style needed to return, and with it, the golden age of Stars hockey. When that didn’t work and Dallas still choked in big moments, general manager Jim Nill was given his chance to hire the coach that he felt would reverse that culture. He chose Jim Montgomery.



Before the culture can be fixed, I think we have to figure out how the Stars messed theirs up in the first place. How did...