Alex Goligoski can relate to the emotion a sellout crowd will bring to the Xcel Energy Center on Monday night when the old team plays the new team.
Goligoski is a Minnesotan -- the lone Minnesotan on the team formerly known as the Minnesota North Stars. But he was 8 years old when the North Stars bolted Minnesota for Texas, relocating in Dallas in 1993. For seven years the NHL remained dark in one of the nation’s great hockey-playing states before the Twin Cities were awarded an expansion franchise in 2000.
In the meantime, the Dallas Stars won a Stanley Cup -- the first Stanley Cup in franchise history.