Every great team needs an anthem to define a memorable season.
For the 1998-99 Stars, who won the Stanley Cup, it was Pantera’s “Puck Off,” written for the team just ahead of the playoffs and later cemented as its goal song for decades.
For the 2023 Texas Rangers, Creed’s “Higher” was played on repeat en route to the team’s first World Series title.
This current Dallas Stars team has already found an anthem — and an artist — to be the soundtrack of its 2026 Stanley Cup push.
Sports Roundup
“Choosin’ Texas” by Ella Langley has taken the country and Stars locker room by storm, making history after spending a fourth consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track set a record Monday for most weeks spent atop the Hot 100 for a song by a woman that also hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, surpassing Taylor Swift’s three-week reign with “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” in 2012.
A significant portion of the streams that got Langley’s tune to the top of the charts have come from inside the Dallas Stars’ locker room and on their plane.
“I kind of became a fan of hers during her last album, so before ‘Choosin’ Texas’ and everything,” Stars forward and avid country music fan Matt Duchene said. “We were kind of playing her stuff the last couple of years on the plane, and then she dropped that one, and it kind of became an unofficial anthem for us.”
The song, which is about a cowboy leaving his Tennessee love to return to his home state of Texas, has become a staple at the Stars’ poker table on their flights to road games. Duchene, Jamie Benn, Jake Oettinger, Jason Robertson, Adam Erne, Nathan Bastian, Oskar Bäck and Tyler Seguin, when he was healthy, made up the regular players at that table. Rookie Justin Hryckowian has since taken Seguin’s spot.
“When we hop on the plane, we throw on the same tune, kind of on repeat,” Hryckowian said. “We kind of all got forced to like it. As soon as we kept hearing it, we were like, ‘All right, we really like this.’”
The Stars’ Langley fandom coincided with a social media trend where men started calling themselves “Ella’s Fellas,” dancing to her songs on TikTok and other social media platforms.
The Stars began sending the memes and TikToks they saw to each other and soon realized they were proudly Ella’s Fellas, too.
That’s what prompted an iconic photo that blew up on social media of seven of the Stars on their plane wearing matching Ella’s Fellas T-shirts.
Langley had teased the new merchandise, and Duchene immediately knew the group needed them, pre-ordering them before the initial drop.
But one of his fellow Ella’s Fellas beat him to the punch.
“I told them I had some coming because I had to pre-order them because they weren’t out yet, and [Adam Erne] bought one in between,” Duchene said. “I was like, ‘Dude, that’s what I bought everybody.’
“I just ordered six thinking not everybody will want one, and then everybody wanted one.”
Hryckowian, who was the only one not featured in the photo, joined the poker table later. But Duchene made sure to place one more order so his rookie could proudly sport his Langley merch next time they’re all listening to “Choosin’ Texas” on the plane.
“It’s funny to see it kind of blow up a little bit,” Duchene said. “I think we’re just, like everybody else out there, loving her music.
“Her music is so good that it transcends both genders. There’s so many guys that love her music.”
Langley has even taken notice. Duchene, who has posted about her music multiple times on social media, said she’s responded every now and then. She also liked the team’s post of its players in her matching shirts on Instagram.
As the Stars — who clinched a playoff spot Sunday — chase their first Stanley Cup title since 1999, their anthem may not stay confined to the plane or locker room for much longer.
“There’s a good chance you see some sort of version of it in warmups for us in the playoffs,” Duchene said. “Hopefully, she’s cheering for the Stars here down the run.”
Twitter/X: @Lassimak