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Dallas Stars Playing A Much Different Wild Team Than Before
No one said it was going to be easy. The Dallas Stars picked up a big win on home ice on Thursday night. But if they want to keep rolling, they will have to outdo one of the top dogs in the pack.
It’s no secret that the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild have a pretty rough history. Ever since Norm Green made the monumental decision to take the Minnesota North Stars and move the franchise to Dallas, TX, things have never been entirely too friendly between the two cities when it comes to hockey.
Things have quietly been building in terms of the rivalry between the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild (who were founded in 1999 to replace the North Stars). It all sort of came to a climax when the Stars and Wild were placed in the Central Division as part of the 2013 NHL realignment.
With the Stars seeing the Wild four or five times a season, the rivalry was set to step it up a notch. Since then, Dallas has gone 8-6-2 against the Wild, including a dominant 4-1-0 last season. The Stars also ended the Wild’s playoff run last season by beating them in six games in the first round.
This year, the Stars are 1-1-0 against the Wild. On the other hand, Minnesota is 1-0-1 this season when facing off against Dallas.
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That’s due to the fact that both of these teams have changed a good bit since the Western Conference quarterfinals. But the biggest changes have not come in terms of personnel, but rather just in how each team is playing.
The Dallas Stars are 18-17-8 with 44 points in 43 games. They only have two win streaks to their name this season and continue to follow an evident win-loss pattern. They sit in eleventh place in the Western Conference at the moment, but are two points out of the final wild card spot and three points out of third in the Central Division. Still a very manageable position with half of the season to go.
But the Wild have turned their misfortunes around for the better. They are 26-9-5 with 57 points. They sit two points out of first place in the Central Division. In the month of December, they posted an insane record of 12-1-1, getting 25 of a possible 28 points. All 12 of their wins came in a row, spanning from December 4th-30th.
They give up a minute 2.10 goals per game (second best in the NHL) and score a powerful 3.23 goals per game (fourth best in the NHL). Devan Dubnyk is having the best season of his career, posting a .940 save percentage and a 1.77 GAA through 32 starts.
They own the 13th best power play and 4th best penalty kill. They are simply a great team that is tearing it up right now.
The last time the Stars and Wild crossed paths was on November 21 in Dallas when the Stars escaped with a 3-2 overtime win. That game marked the Stars’ first of only two overtime wins this season in 10 chances.
So Minnesota has won a lot of games since that last meeting. Dallas has managed to stay just at .500 since then. These are two completely different teams that will be facing off, and the Dallas Stars could desperately use a win.
To put things into perspective, if the Stars win in regulation tomorrow, they would finally push the Wild to double digit regulation losses. It would also be the Stars’ first time this season defeating Minnesota in regulation.
It would give Dallas a valuable two points and a Central Division win. It could potentially push them into the final wild card spot, and could even put them one point behind St. Louis. As much as it stinks to have to eye the standings every game when compared to last season when first place was a shoe-in for the majority of the year, it’s all they’ve got. But at least they’ve got something.
It seems as though this is becoming the case for every Stars game over the past few weeks. It’s critical and the Stars really need the win, because eventually they will run out of these chances to gain ground.
Last night was a good start. They kicked off a short two-game homestand with an overwhelming 5-2 victory against the Detroit Red Wings. It was a game that was very reminiscent of the 2015-16 season in terms of offense, defense, and the goaltending (Antti Niemi was outstanding once again).
So far, they have yet to answer the bell in this situation. Maybe tomorrow is the day. Maybe this is the corner we have been waiting months for them to turn. Maybe it all started yesterday and we just didn’t know it. Maybe Antti Niemi will once again play out of his mind and the Dallas Stars offense will go off yet again.
Maybe it’s time for the Dallas Stars to go on a tear of their own, starting with a powerful divisional rival near the top of the pack. Or maybe I’m still crazy for doing all of this and filling your head with these empty hopes.
I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.
