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markstanco

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  1. https://starsthoughts.com/2025/01/27/the-end-of-a-dallas-stars-musical-tradition-the-story-of-where-the-darkness-came-from-and-why-it-may-have-suddenly-disappeared/ The End of a Dallas Stars Musical Tradition: The Story of Where the โ€œDarknessโ€ Came From, and Why It May Have Suddenly Disappeared Robert Tiffin January 27, 2025 | 8:30 AM CST Until last month, Dallas Stars fans all knew what to expect after the opposing team scored a goal at Stars home games. The crowd would groan, sure. Some people might even shout in digust. Players would occasionally whack their sticks in frustration, perhaps tossing a word or two toward the referees on their way back to the bench. But over all of that, music would play after the opposition scored. Specifically, this music, which is commonly referred to as โ€œDarknessโ€ thanks to its surprising links to a local sports radio station that weโ€™ll discuss later on: Any Stars fan recognizes that music and the heartbreak that usually accompanied it. The tune would play for a few seconds while the opposing team celebrated with a pesky red light above the Starsโ€™ goal, and it would tell you that yes, this was a bummer of a moment, and everyone here knows it. It wasnโ€™t music that made you feel goodโ€”nothing can take away the sting of surrendering a goal other than scoring the next oneโ€”but then, it wasnโ€™t designed to. That music was intended to capture the experience of suffering a goal-against, not to pretend it didnโ€™t happen. Stars fans knew that when you heard that music, you mourned together. But last month, in December 2024, that music suddenly disappeared. As recently as December 14, you still heard the โ€œDarknessโ€ music play after Jordan Kyrouโ€™s goal in the Starsโ€™ overtime victory against St. Louis. But in the Starsโ€™ next game, on December 16 against Washington, the music was gone. Instead, when Wasington scored, you heard only a guitar riff from Blink 182. That musical drop had previously played after the โ€œDarknessโ€ music had run for a bit, but now, the old โ€œDarknessโ€ music was gone altogether, in the middle of a homestand, and it hasnโ€™t returned since. Against Carolina on Tuesday, for instance, you heard a short, upbeat track play right after Jesperi Kotkaniemiโ€™s first goal. Another short guitar riff played after his second. Neither was preceded by โ€œDarkness.โ€ Initially, I figured this was part of experimentation, as Dallas Stars games have long been famous for their edgy, innovative game presentation, and that often means changing out the old for the new. That sort of tinkering can sometimes mean rejecting homogenous trends across the industry in favor of developing a specific Dallas Stars experience, like the Stars did a decade ago when then-DJ Michael Gruber changed their goal song from more generic tunes like โ€œThe Whipโ€ or โ€œRock โ€˜nโ€™ Roll (Part 2)โ€, which had been used by many other teams, to the distinctive โ€œPuck Offโ€ by Pantera, a tune created specifically for the Dallas Stars by the late Vinnie Paul. It was a change that was widely praised, as the song that was formerly only used for player introductions is now played (hopefully) during the most celebratory moments of every game. A song with history like that deserves a spotlight. Change happens, and sometimes for the better. But the more I looked into this change, the odder it seemed. After all, this music has been around for a long time, so youโ€™d think that if the Stars were going to dispense with it, theyโ€™d have done so at the beginning of the season with a more cohesive plan in place, rather than start with the traditional music, only to abruptly switch it out in the middle of a homestand for an assortment of other choices. I had heard a few weeks ago that this decision wasnโ€™t made by their current Music Director, Jonathon โ€œDJ Shippyโ€ Shipman, or by any of the other game presentation staff. And to be clear, thatโ€™s not based on anything the game presentation folks have told me. In fact, the folks Iโ€™ve spoken with have all been very above-board in referring me to official channels up the ladder, declining to speak about the change themselves. That in itself was surprising to me, as changing a musical drop wouldnโ€™t normally be so big of a deal that folks wouldnโ€™t talk about it. Most folks Iโ€™ve spoken to who work with the team take a great deal of pride in what they do, and itโ€™s often a delight to hear about how theyโ€™ve put their passion into their role to make the experience as memorable as possible. But in this case, no dice. Last week, I reached out to the team directly, and on Thursday, a team spokesperson responded regarding the disappearance of the โ€œDarknessโ€ music. Here is what they said: In other words, it sure seems like the โ€œDarknessโ€ isnโ€™t coming back any time soon. And the way it happened seems a bit of a shame, because it turns out that this music is one of the oldest Dallas Stars traditions there is. So, letโ€™s dig into where it came from, and why it might have disappeared so suddenly. The Origins of the โ€œDarknessโ€ Music Iโ€™m not exaggerating about this being an old tradition, by the way. You can go back 18 years, when you were hearing that music in the 2007 playoffs (at 2:41 of the below video): And you go could back even further, too. In fact, I believe you can faintly hear it even on the quieter Reunion Arena sound system back in 1994, if you listen closely: Even as recently as 2019, it was widely known that this music went back to the Starsโ€™ very first season at Reunion Arena, as Gruber said when asked about this music on Reddit back in 2019. (By the way, โ€œGrubesโ€ is one of the very good ones out there, and you should check out his new podcast.) So, it was generally accepted that this music had been around a long, long time. But when you really want to get the whole story, you have to go to the source. So I reached out to the man himself: Ty Wubker, the original โ€œmusic guyโ€ for the Stars from 1993 until 2006โ€”a period he incidentally referred to as โ€œthe best years of my life.โ€ โ€œFirst, it hurts that they gave up on the Darkness music,โ€ said Wubker, a Wisconsin native who grew up a โ€œhugeโ€ North Stars fan. Wubker was living in Dallas working at KZPS in 1993 when one of his friends was interning with the Stars. That friend got Wubker an interview with the team when they were looking for someone to run the music, and he ended up with the job, in all of itsโ€ฆwell, โ€œgloryโ€ may not be quite the right word. Iโ€™ll let Wubker take over from here: (Authorโ€™s Note: Iโ€™ve lightly edited the below quotes for clarity and style.) So, there you have it. Wubker just happened across a random tape, and it sounded like a good fit for a specific moment in hockey games, so thatโ€™s what he used it for. And it stuck for the next three decades. Wubker also confirmed that the nickname โ€œDarknessโ€ for the music was coined by Texas Radio Hall-of-Famer Mike Rhyner, formerly of KTCK โ€œThe Ticket,โ€ along with his former co-host Greg Williams. The duo adapted the tune for deployment as a musical drop for announcements on the Ticket, so fans who have never even seen a Stars game may still be familiar with the tune from listening to local radio. While we may never know what musician originally composed the theme on that โ€œcartโ€, we do know that it was there waiting for team at Reunion Arena, waiting to be discovered. And for over 30 years, from that inaugural 1993-94 season all the way to the halfway mark of this 2024-25 campaign, that quirky, unique Dallas Stars tradition endured. So, why did it suddenly stop? The Day the Music Died: a Theory To be clear, this final section is just my speculation based on what I could gather from other sources and context clues. Hereโ€™s my tentative conclusion: I donโ€™t think the Blues game on December 14 was what killed the โ€œDarknessโ€ music. Because I think the decision was made after the previous game, when the Stars got smoked 4-1 by Nashville two days prior: To jog your memory, thatโ€™s the โ€œinexcusableโ€ game Jamie Benn described afterwards as โ€œpretty ugly.โ€ Itโ€™s the game about which Miro Heiskanen said, โ€œThey were a lot better,โ€ which is scathing crticism by his standards. And Pete DeBoer summarized that one as, โ€œNot close to competitive enough. Disappointing. It was everybody. Our Video Review coaches were our best players tonight by far.โ€ So, yeah. Iโ€™m sure you remember it now, and Iโ€™m sorry you had to. But for our purposes today, hereโ€™s what Iโ€™m thinking: I could see somebody getting very sick of hearing this music over and over again in that game (six times, in fact, as two other Nashville goals were disallowed upon review). And I could see somebody getting so annoyed by it that they would issue a mandate to get rid of the music that kept playing after every ugly and disappointing goal. Who was that someone? Well, I personally canโ€™t see any hockey ops people caring about the music enough to demand a change, especially when all the game presentation folks are well-aware of the history and tradition associated with the music that goes back to the 1993-94 season. Additionally, the high degree of tact exhibited by everybody in discussing the change (or declining to, in most cases) also seems to indicate this was a decision that came from higher up in the organization rather than lower. So, it wouldnโ€™t surprise me if somebody at or near the very top of the organization was at the Nashville game. It also wouldnโ€™t surprise me if their frustration grew along with the crowdโ€™s, until they finally decided they had endured quite enough of a tune that was, as Ty Wubker himself said, โ€œkinda depressing.โ€ Maybe there was some back-and-forth for a day or two debating the change, and the music lingered for the next game against St. Louis before the matter was settled. But in the end, if the people in charge say you have to change the music, you kinda have to change the music, donโ€™t you? And since the music wasnโ€™t written specifically for Stars players by a beloved heavy metal legend like โ€œPuck Off,โ€ the only real defense for the โ€œDarknessโ€ music is that itโ€™s always been there, or tradition for its own sake. And thatโ€™s probably not a defense robust enough to withstand any powerful personโ€™s frustration after a truly disappointing game. Again, thatโ€™s just my theorizing. This season has been a very good one in many respects, but the last two playoff exits have stung quite a bit, and even this season has had its share of very pointed moments of frustrationโ€”that Nashville game certainly not least among them. And sometimes, frustrations boil over, and changes happen as a result. Nobody is immune to exasperation when expectations arenโ€™t met, as the Stars have shown in the past. Previous seasons with high levels of frustration have seen the Stars bring back Ken Hitchcock for a second run after a year of rolling out one of the worst penalty kills (2016-17) in NHL history (unlike this year). That 2017-18 Hitch 2.0 season even saw the team bring back a famous playerโ€™s tradition and all wear yellow laces during a winning streak, only for injuries and subpar play to land them out of the playoffs all the same, bringing on a third coaching change in three years. And thereโ€™s no better example of how the organization has responded to frustration in the past than in Jim Montgomeryโ€™s first season, when discontent about the on-ice performance boiled over in December 2018 with an infamous tirade about Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin that came straight from the top. Of course, itโ€™s possible that Iโ€™m wrong to link a musical change in December 2024 to that pattern from years prior. But an abrupt departure from a 30-year-old tradition in the middle of the season is highly uncharacteristic for the teamโ€™s historically on-point game-presentation crew. This sort of change has the sense of a mandate about it, I think. Thatโ€™s not to say something better wonโ€™t be around the corner, though. New traditions have to start somewhere, and the NHL has even discarded one of the more sacred cows in hockey by allowing ads on the very sweaters the players wear. Jamie Benn is one of the last players not to wear a visor, and players get in trouble if their sweaters so much as bunch up on the back of their pants too frequently. What change isnโ€™t on the table, at this point? Full disclosure here: Iโ€™m just an elder millennial who still kinda misses the old organ music, so Iโ€™m probably the last person who should be giving advice about game presentation anyway. Iโ€™m not trying to say all change is bad or anything like that. But this is a pretty noteworthy departure from tradition, both historically and operationally. Maybe the โ€œDarknessโ€ music was always bound to change at some point, though. And maybe the game presentation folks will come up with something just as memorable for the purposes of commiserating about an opponentโ€™s goal for the next 30 years. But whatever the new tradition ends up being, itโ€™s clear that those folks havenโ€™t quite found it yetโ€”perhaps because they only recently discovered theyโ€™d have to say good-bye to the old one.
  2. Forgot all about that.
  3. Yea I thought that statement HAD to be wrong until I looked it up. WTF SEC???
  4. Yea the season before he was Johntaying a little.
  5. Horns hang 11 on aggy this weekend in hockey. Giggity. Also, basketball happened. Also, football happened.
  6. You may be the biggest sports fan I โ€œknowโ€. You are all over the board with hockey and tennis and football and everything.
  7. Damn, rantanen going to the hurricanes!!!!!!
  8. Gonna have to give up stank or bourque more than likely to get a player that is more than a rental.
  9. I read in the comments it happened in Atlanta, and he lived.
  10. That was about $20 of gas used in that clip.
  11. Let's not get carried away here. D1s at a blue blood school are all high school "all-stars" from around the country. They would beat Allen or Mater Dei by 75 points if they wanted.
  12. #433 will get to tell tales around deer camp the rest of his life.
  13. Yea if he wins even 13 games heโ€™s gone.
  14. They werenโ€™t coming back anyhow. He was playing numbers that werenโ€™t there.
  15. So it is a known drug issue? I have not seen this yet or I forgot. Getting kicked off a team in WA state for drug use is probably hard to do.
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