Ulf Dahlen has made his decision about next season, it appears. He’s leaving the Stars to coach in Sweden. He’ll be the head coach of Frolunda, of the Swedish Elite League.
I was hoping he’d sign on for next year. I honestly don’t know the details about what he contributed to the coaching staff, but I can tell you he certainly contributed to the overall appearance of it. He’s a handsome man, especially when he’s wearing his little glasses.
He was usually up in the pressbox, or a suite, watching the game and calling down with his observations, then he’d show up on the bench for the third period. He worked a lot with the power play units, too.
Our power play was pretty damn good in the first round of this years’ playoffs and still darn good in most of the second round. There’s some thought that Zubov’s return made them fall back into a style that was too easy to predict, compared to what they were doing to Anaheim without him. I think Dahlen had a lot to do with the success of the power play.
I’m sure Ulfie had a lot to do with the collection of Swedes we have now. He was a scout in Sweden for the Stars after he retired as a player following the 2002-2003 season with the team. Loui Eriksson and Joel Lundqvist and Nick Grossman were probably pretty glad to have him around when they were new here.
According to Heika, he turned down an offer of an extension back in November so he could study his options. I’ve been hoping he’d stay but I can understand that he wants to be a head coach, or at least a bench assistant, and Frolunda is giving him a head coaching position right now. I presume he plans to work his way back to the NHL and someday have his own team. Hopefully, it won’t be too long. Best of luck to him.
This is such a downer. I like Ulf! I wish he had stayed, with his fancy cough drops and all. :/
I forgot about the cough drops until I’d already posted it. I’m glad you brought that up. I hope whoever takes over is good with cough drops, too. :D