Waching daily Dec 31 2017

How Jamie Benn's quiet leadership is just what the Stars need this season

The delicate balance between word and action plays out on the ice for Jamie Benn like a Tom Hardy film role.

The Stars captain is typically a man of few words, but he seems to choose his moments well.

And when he doesnt want to talk, well, thats when the movie gets really good.

As the Stars have started the kind of journey Hardy treads in The Revenant or Mad Max: Fury Road, it has been anything but easy.

The team quickly fell in a ditch and has been battling adversity much of its first 40 games.

New/old coach Ken Hitchcock preaches a strategy where he first leads and then eventually hands leadership responsibility over to the players.

While that worked perfectly behind the scenes in the past and happened organically with the old Stars, its a more public proposition in this day of media overexposure.

You want the story, so we ask about it.

A lot.

When in this handoff of leadership going to take place?.

How is it going to take place?.

Who are the parties that will make this handoff take place?.

I bombarded Benn with those questions Friday morning, and he sort of just shrugged.

It starts with myself, he said, repeating one of his favorite lines before delivering one of those Hardy-like observations that actually cuts pretty deep.

If the rest of this team sees the captain, the leaders, the mentors, the older guys setting a good example, playing the right way, playing a tough game with a lot of compete, then they have something to follow, and then theres no excuses for anything, he said.

It was an intriguing look into what Benn has learned in his four-plus years as captain.

He is not going to talk much, he is not going to yell at his teammates, he is not going to make demanding speeches.

But he is going to lead.

Its almost like Hardys character in Lawless, Forrest Bondurant, stating: It is not the violence that sets a man apart -- its the distance he is prepared to go.

Benn was like that Friday.

He was part of a gritty Stars effort that built a 1-0 lead, but he then saw it all evaporate when the team allowed two goals in two minutes in the third period.

So, somebody had to act.

Benns forecheck late in the third period was a great example of that.

He skated in hard on Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson, intercepted a pass, skated behind the net, wheeled out in front and whipped a backhand shot past Jake Allen to tie the game 2-2.

Allen got tangled up in the carnage of the Benn takeaway, and the Blues felt there might have been interference on the play.

Benn even called the goal lucky, but that misses the point.

His action created the mistake, it created the chaos, it created the solution.

It created doubt and confusion in Edmundson, who took a roughing penalty two minutes later.

That penalty opened the door to Alexander Radulovs power play goal to give the Stars the lead.

Thats what a big play by a leader can do.

It changes the ripples of the game.

Thats his responsibility, Hitchcock said.

He takes it seriously and hes good at it..

Goalie Ben Bishop added: At any given time in a game, he kind of takes it over.

Hes a great leader, hes a great captain.

Im proud to play for him.

He steps up when we need him..

Now, in this nebulous handoff of power from coach to players that will signal the team is ready to compete in the playoffs, there has to be a whole lot more involvement than just Jamie Benn.

The alternate captains have to step up.

So do some key kids.

And they will have to do so both on and off the ice.

It wont be easy and it wont be quick.

But if they are looking for a sign, all they have to do is watch Benn and listen for the kind of line Hardy delivered in Inception before taking matters into his own hands.

You mustnt be afraid, he said, to dream a little bigger, darling.

Like a lot of things Hardy characters say, thats something a lot of teammates will understand.

eventually.